Snapchat Review: Spring Practice Number 11

By: french60wasp

on April 13, 2017, 10:11 PM | 32 comments

Tonight's practice had limited footage but had some interesting tidbits.

Adonis Alexander went on on one against Cam Phillips in a drill. Phillips ran a deep dig route. Alexander was right in his hip on the initial break. Phillips worked his way back to the QB and finally got enough space to make the catch. In a game situation, a quarterback would have likely been sacked or chased out of the pocket by the time Phillips broke open. Alexander is still very aggressive before bailing on his cushion. This makes him outstanding against curls, outs, and comeback routes, and makes him susceptible to deep balls. His transitions out of breaks are outstanding- if he can show the straight-line speed to turn and run on vertical routes, he will be a high demand NFL prospect.

We saw some team on team work. On the first repetition Gallo caves in the right defensive tackle. Smith at right tackle blocks down and leads up on an unseen linebacker. Teller, who has been excellent all camp, comes around but doesn't find a body to clean up on. He should work up to the first linebacker that shows here instead of curling back to help Gallo.

On the second repetition, Jarrod Hewitt, Dee Fullwood, and Tremaine Edmunds jammed up the inside gap fits. The back was forced to bound and got spilled right into rover Khalil Ladler (#9). That is well executed run-scheme. This was not a tackle drill. We know Ladler can be in the right spot. Can he put a runner like Peoples on the ground?

The second team offensive line opens up a big hole for Peoples as Hooker fakes a quick screen after the handoff. Kyle Chung appears to be the right guard with the 2 group and drives a defender way to the inside. Austin Cannon (LG) and Zach Hoyt (C) also get good movement.

The next rep is the one group with Pfaff at right guard. Bush pulls the ball down on a quarterback draw and doesn't find room off the left side. He wiggles and slips through a seam between Pffaf and Gallo to break a run. This is a beautiful escape by Bush through a very narrow seam.

It appears Ryan Willis is working with the 2's at QB along with Hooker. Willis, who is walking on after getting some starts at Kansas, is not eligible this year/taking a redshirt. Peoples breaks a nice run off tackle behind the pulling Dalton Keene. It appears that the groups are pretty settled like this:

1's H-Cunningham, LT-Nijman, LG-Teller, C-Gallo, RT-Smith (Pffaf and Chung is the battle at RG.)
2's H-Keene (he will play), LT-Jackson, LG-Cannon, C-Hoyt, RT-Plantin

If Parker Osterloh can get healthy, I'd prefer to see him get work at that right guard competition.

In pass blocking, Xavier Burke does a great cross step to beat Tyrell Smith to the inside. Smith does a wonderful job of keeping his balance to recover and drive Burke across the pocket. Burke has an excellent first step, but (as you can expect) he is robotic when transitioning to leverage and turning the corner. He has an angle but can't bend to exploit it. He is raw, but has some potential.

On the second rep, Dee Fullwood beats Gallo to the punch and gets under his pads (you can see Gallo's hips almost ahead of his shoulders as he bends backwards. Gallo does a good job with his second punch to stop Fullwood's momentum and that gets Gallo's weight back over his toes where he can push back effectively. The initial push would have probably caused most QBs to bail, but Gallo got back into the rep and prevented a sack.

Back to team work, Josh Jackson is in. He gives the ball to a smaller running back in blue. I am guessing that is DeShawn McClease. McClease bounces outside behind a pulling Chris Cunningham, who locks up his defender so well that you can hear Coach James Shibest yell "there you go 85!" in the background.

The next rep has Bush in at QB, and Burke is right in his face as he delivers a screen. Not much to go on there.

One last thought- man based on snapchat it looks like they are working Steven Peoples to death. Also, we are not getting much of a look at the wide receivers or the quarterbacks in much of this film. Fortunately, the recruits from Dudley High School (NC) that were on recruiting visits to Blacksburg filmed their old teammate chucking the ball. This is what kind of talent Hendon Hooker can bring to the table when he is ready.