Spring practice No. 10: In the morning session Tuesday, Texas A&M worked out inside for 70 minutes in helmets and shorts. In the afternoon session the Aggies worked out in pads for 90 minutes.
A&M head coach Mike Sherman was pleased with the tempo of the morning practice, while the afternoon session was highlighted by the defense working on the blitz.
"The offense was at a little bit of a disadvantage [because] we're a little bit behind on our blitz pick-up," Sherman said. "[But] I was excited about the defense. They were getting their blitzes run pretty efficiently, and we were getting through to the quarterback."
Sherman said the ability to blitz or stop the blitz is critical.
"If you can't pick up the blitz, it's a long afternoon on Saturdays," he said. "If you can, you really shorten the game, because you can score faster. If we can pick up the blitz and get the ball thrown to the right receiver and they can make something happen, we could have some big plays."
*
Injuries mounting: A&M had nine offensive linemen practicing in full pads in the afternoon scrimmages and nine not taking part. Redshirt freshman Brian Thomas, who worked at first-team tackle and center last week, wasn't in full pads, joining redshirt freshmen Chris Lathrop, Leroy Chavalier and Josh Ayers, juniors Matt Rankin, Lucas Patterson and Price Ferguson, and seniors Lee Grimes and Kevin Matthews, who also didn't scrimmage.
"We're really, really thin on both sides of the ball," Sherman said. "And that's why we're doing the two-a-day practices as opposed to one long one, getting guys to come out here for shorter spurts."
*
Featherston watching, smiling: Senior linebacker Matt Featherston was back at practice, watching and talking with his teammates. He suffered a neck strain Thursday and had to be taken from the field on a stretcher as a precaution.
"He's going to be fine," Sherman said. "He tweaked his neck."
Featherston, though, won't compete in Saturday's Maroon & White Game.
*
Tannehill throwing: Sophomore Ryan Tannehill, who is competing for the starting quarterback job, threw passes with the other quarterbacks after practice. Tannehill, who is recovering from a torn labrum, catches passes during individual workouts but hasn't had scrimmage contact.
"He's anxious to get started, [but] we still have to be very precautionary in regard to what we're asking him to do," Sherman said. "It's one thing to throw after practice, it's another thing to throw with a pass rush coming at you, and to throw a lot of balls. So, he's not doing that. Moderate throwing is what he's doing now. And we're going to keep it that way until he's 100 percent. We're not going to take any chances there."
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Jerod-Eddie bests Baker: It took two confrontations, but sophomore defensive lineman Tony Jerod-Eddie bested sophomore offensive lineman Danny Baker in a super battle of the Aggie Drill, which has players go one-on-one against each other. Each side was able to pick a player in a competition for five points toward the day's overall intrasquad winner. The combatants battled to a draw in the first encounter, but Jerod-Eddie prevailed in the second try. Jerod-Eddie was mobbed by his teammates, cutting short his victory dance.
*
Another win for the defense: The defense grabbed a 105-85 victory. The offense built a big lead during the first part of the morning session during 7-on-7, but dropped passes, a couple fumbles, a few off-target throws and a few sacks spurred the comeback by the defense.
"We dropped too many balls today," Sherman said.
*
Nice efforts: Junior defensive lineman Cody Williams tipped a pass by redshirt freshman Tommy Dorman that was intercepted by sophomore cornerback Justin McQueen to highlight the morning defensive effort in 7-on-7. ... Sophomore running back Cyrus Gray had a 35-yard touchdown run during scrimmage action and another 40-yarder. ... The scrimmage ended with senior safety Jordan Pugh intercepting a Dorman pass.
*
Next up: A&M will practice at 6:10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday. Practice is open to current A&M students, former students (wearing an Aggie ring) and A&M faculty or staff with a current ID. ... The Maroon & White Game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday.
*
Faces in the crowd: Texas A&M linebacker signee Jonathan Stewart from Shreveport (La.) Byrd High School took in both practices as Byrd is on spring break this week. ... Among those watching the afternoon practice was former A&M head coach R.C. Slocum. Others in attendance were Bryan High head coach Bob Bellard and his staff, which included offensive coordinator David Beal, a former A&M quarterback, and offensive line coach Jim Bob Helduser, who held the same post at Texas A&M under former head coach Dennis Franchione, and former A&M Consolidated head coach Ross Rogers, who coached A&M sophomore wide receiver Nick Trice of Harker Heights.
-- ROBERT CESSNA
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Posted by: Pablo On: 4/28/2009
Comment Title: Stars..
When you say "this defense came about because it became very difficult to find good DE's at the next level" - are you talking about in general, as in the origin of the 3-4 back in the day, or 2009 Texas A&M? Trying to understand our 3-4 better...
Posted by: miller58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: RE; Seeing Stars
My personal opinions:_____Stars, two good posts!_____Thanks._____miller58
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: RE: 08Challenger
My experience is that when manned CORRECTLY it does both. This defense came about only because it became very difficult to find good DE's at the next level. Just not many good draftable players at that position. But you could find some hybrid DE/LB types (smaller, quicker DE's suited to both positions). So we plug those two into our outside linebacker spots, bring them up near the line of scrimmage, leaving two LB's for the middle. One, or both, of the two outside LB's will apply pressure on the QB or drop in coverage on the slot. Works great IF the 3 down linemen can keep the 5 o-linemen off your two middle linebackers. They must stop the run if it gets through. You run a nose tackle head up on the center to take one double-team and one of your other down linemen takes another double-team. That's why you need super sized guys. They take a pounding for 60 minutes. My concern is our left side looks like a 4-3 and our right side like a 3-4 with two somewhat small DT's that will be facing 300+ o-lines. Will be interested to see this play out. I am not familiar with this particular set at all.
Posted by: 08Challenger On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Great Post
Great Post Seeing Stars. I remember watching teams run a standard ISO draw right up the middle for 15 yd chunks and wondering how that was possible. Is the 3-4 defense more adept at stopping the run or is it more equipped to prevent the pass?
Posted by: miller58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Re: ROLL TIDE
my personal opinions:_____ROLL TIDE, your post broke me up!_____THat was funny, funny, funnY!_____miller58
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title:
The "football notebook" articles are great overviews of practice sessions. Shows what we work from session to session. Still don't understand the infatuation with our passing offense and our passing defense which seem to get most of the press. Last year the opponents ran the ball on us 507 times at 5.19 yards per attempt (2 plays = first down and national rank of #114). With that success they found it necessary to throw the ball only 365 times but when they did they hit 7.98 yards per attempt (#95 national rank) due in part to our lack of speed. Three things can happen when you throw the ball and 2 of them are bad (completion, incompletion, interception) so you would rather run than throw in most cases if you are successful with it which our opponents were. You also control the clock and game tempo with the run. We are putting more speed on the feld to defend the pass which puts the run defense in more jeopardy it seems (replacing a DE with a smaller LB). Hope this all works out but reading the above article gives no insght to our work on run defense, just discussions on both sides of the passing game. Maybe they are just working our passing offense and it has nothing to do with defense but at some point in the summer or fall this will have to be addressed. While both must show improvement our defense needs to take a bigger step than the offense. Special teams will be more of an issue this year as well.
Posted by: ROLL TIDE On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: re- miller 59
You just let that cat out of the bag. Saban was hired january 2007 and sherman WAS available at that time too. The tide fans are really going to be upset when they look at what sherman has accomplished here compared to saban at alabama.
Posted by: Flowbee58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Pinocchio58
Ok, I think most of us know alsready, but here is all you need to know about Pinocchio58, aka the Flowbee Kid. Simply refer to the basketball thread in the Eagle yesterday by Croome. Pinocchio claims he has been banned by Aggie blogs because he is too truthful. THEY EMAILED HIM AND TOLD HIM SO !!!! Of course he won't name names. Called out on it, he fell into silence. He never debates facts, but spreads conjecture. He loves to have his jollies between the time he is spitting on the hamburger buns while on the drive-thru shift. Gig'em Aggies !!! You'll never see him post that. True douche.
Posted by: miller59 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title:
_____Actually, I expect Sherman to win *MORE* games than lose._____A coach deserves time to bring in his type of players that fit his type of offensive and defensive schemes._____Saban *did* have a great season last year, but that, respectfully, is apples and oranges._____ Speculation is a funny thing. If, instead of hiring Saban, they hired Sherman, maybe Alabama wins the national championship. Maybe they only win 2 games._____miller59
Posted by: miller58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: RE: Ignore the idiot
My personal opinions:_____Ignore the idiot, we have much more than hope!_____We, this fall on campus, have the red shirt sophs, juniors. and seniors that Sherman inherited back in November'07, that will have gone through Sherman 2 spring trainigs, 2 summer camps, and 2 fall camps._____We have Sherman in his third and fourth signing classes in progress, with up to 59 players on campus this fall, that Sherman peronally evaluated and signed._____ Everything from a junior 4* lsu o-lineman, transfers, sophs, redshirt fish and fish will all be on Kyle field this fall ready to play football_____ If Sherman just did a good job of evaluating recruits and coaching, Nick Saban won 12 regular season games in almost exactly the same position last year?_____Because My evaluation of Sherman is that of both a crappy coach and recruiter, expect Sherman to lose more games than he wins this fall!_____miller58
Posted by: miller59 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: AGS ON TRACK
_____The most encouraging news I've read regarding our Ags this spring is that we're playing like a *team*._____Sherman's recruitment of speed looks like it's going to start paying dividends. _____Especially when the speedy new recruits suit up for the fall. _____Keep up the good work Coach Sherman and staff!_____miller59
Posted by: On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title:
Doesn't everyone realize by now that there is no Miller58 but is a Teasip having a lot of fun in needling Ags. Anyone can go on the tu forum and do the same to them. Just ignore his comments !
Posted by: On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Ignore the Idiot
Please ignore the idiot! Maybe he will go away. As far as aggie92's question, I can't prove you wrong. This is our biggest problem right now. We are so bad on both lines that no one ever gets better in the spring and summer. We just have to trust that regardless of their health, the O-Lineman are picking up what Sherman wants them to learn and are improving in their knowledge of the system and in their technique. If the O-line can improve we have the weapons to be able to outscore some folks until the defense can (hopefully) figure things out. The good news is that our best coaches are on OL and on the defensive side of the ball (Kines), so at least we can hope to overcome some of our talent deficiencies with coaching. Remember, I said hope. That's about all we have right now is hope.
Posted by: Ags On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: OMG Holycrap
Miller is influencing quite a few people now and that is so wrong! Stop that douche.
Posted by: Pusgut On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: CinterL is right
No one on here knows enough about our practices and program to glean all these assumptions about how good or how terrible we are going to be. Aggie92, you are jumping to way too many conclusions and are creating your "reality" based on some snippets from spring practice. I hope we improve but truth is, I won't know until we play a real game and neither will any of you. Except Miller, he knows all, sees all , and has been to the future. Don't believe everything he says or he will suck the life right out of you.
Posted by: CinterL On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Just wait to see what happens this season
Aggie 92 you have every right to be questioning our defense they way they preformed last year. However, I truely believe this year will be different. From what I have read and SEEN in practice is a much faster defense than last year. Last year there were a lot of busted coverages that led to points, this year DB are sticking to WR like glue almost. Also the LB core is flying around and sometimes making plays behind the line, which did not happen much last year. Only time will tell however about the run defense, I can't answer that question. As for the offense, we just have to wait and see how many true freshman step up this summer and fall. Uzoma Nwachukwu seems like the WR that will add a deep threat and keep double coverage from fuller. No one saw trent hunter starting as safety last year, so just wait and see who come up big this fall. It will be fun to watch.
Posted by: Paul On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: My personal opinion
Miller's an attention whore who doesn't realize the world thinks he's a fool. What a sad life you have miller. Take up bowling or something, loser.
Posted by: KAHill On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Lets just disband the football team
Guys, miller's right. Lets just give up; tell all players to go home because they aren't 4* or 5*. And tell all the 4* and 5* to go home because there isn't enough of them. Fire the coaches. It was nice while it lasted....
Posted by: miller58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Re: Aggies92
My personal opnions:_____How much improvement can you expect from a coaching staff, offense and defense ranked #99 in the nation by Sagarin after their last game?_____ we are bringing in 28 fish that are slower than the seniors graduating and juniors leaving for the nfl._____Why would you ever expect improvement with a coaching staff I rank at the #120th inthe nation, an offense ranked #99 and a defense ranked #109 starting this fall?_____miller58
Posted by: On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Miller's Idiocracy Makes Me Laugh
Why is Miller so worried about Quentin Hayes?? He has no stars next to his name. If Ags had signed him, wouldnt he be ripping them for signing another recruit that was not a 4/5 star "difference maker". I love when he shows his stupidity.
Posted by: aggie92 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: Real Evaluation
Can we forget the recruiting for a moment and focus for once on the current player crop. Can anyone believe that the defense is actually improving? Against this inept offense, that even in Spring drills can't keep any offensive linemen healthy, any defense would look like world beaters. I'm afraid that come the 1st game this fall it may be the same version repeated. The offense will bumble, stumble, and fumble, have about 4 moments of briliance and about 4 penalties take away huge plays. On the other side we'll hear about all the progress, yet they will have no QB sacks and give up 30+ by the end of the game. Anyone out there that can prove this realist wrong???
Posted by: miller58 On: 4/15/2009
Comment Title: WITH A&M OFFERS, IN HAND< DB's CHOSE OUT OF STATE NEBRASKA AND OU!
My personal opinions:_____Remember our poor recruiting in Sherman's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th signing classes now in progress at our next blow out loss celebration?____Both these DB's would have helped A&M at big need positions!_____4*CB Anterio Sloan 5-10 165 4.48 chose nebraska over an A&M offer._____AY safety Quentin Hayes 6-1 175 4.4 chose ou over an A&M offer._____Expect both Big 12 opponents, ou and nebraska to inflict blow out losses to A&M with these 2 players when they play for up to the next five years!_____miller58
CU fans not excited about A&M; Remember that bad CU team in 2000? McFerrin thoughts
