Whistles were blowing, coaches were yelling, players were throwing up, and gatorade was being consumed by the gallons...yes, it is time for football! The Hilltoppers first day of practice was based around the usual offensive and defensive individual drills, red zone offense, toss and hand offs, and the first and second team offensive and defensive units battling each other throughout the night. Coaches were focused on getting the players acclimated to the new styles on both sides of the ball.
The quarterback situation looks to be up in the air each candidate brings their own special skill set to the team, however tonight each seemed to struggle a bit with accuracy. JUCO transfer Matt Pelesasa is very shifty with his feet and has the quickest release of all three. During drills against the defense Coach Taggart got frustrated with Pelesasa and pulled him from running the offense for a while. Kawaun Jakes was good with mid range passes but struggled with handling snaps and fumbled the ball on a couple of occasions during designed run plays. After each fumble a coach was in his ear as he walked back to the huddle. Brandon Doughty has a big arm and can make the deep passes but struggled with short range passes at times as he received a few lessons on throwing motions from Coach Taggart.
This was the first day of practice so obviously there is a lot of rust to work out, especially for the wide receivers. They looked sloppy in individual drills, but a receiver that stood out to me was local product Blake Ayers. He has a great set of hands and is a consistent route runner, knowing when to use his burst of speed during the play to break open from the defenders. Running back Braxton Miller was another stand out player during practice, he is a hard runner and has excellent cutting ability.
The first day of training camp is complete, on to the next day.
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