Western Kentucky Football Camp Update 8/20

To update the quarterback competition over the last few days, Kawaun Jakes is looking more comfortable controlling the offense with short range passes and his ability to make plays with his speed. In Tuesday’s practice Jakes connected with Quinterrance Cooper on a 65 yard pass play down the sideline to end the practice session. Impressive speed from Cooper.

Matt Pelesasa has been very limited with reps in practice the last two days with a sore arm, coaches are using precaution and letting his arm recover. He is expected to back at full strength in today’s evening practice session.

With Pelesasa resting his arm, that means freshman Brandon Doughty has been getting more playing time with the offensive units. He has been showing off his mid range passing ability, hitting a lot of receivers in stride in the 20-30 yard range. If Doughty continues to develop his game, the quarterback competition will be even more difficult to predict this time next season.

Bobby Rainey has been wearing a yellow jersey in practice which means whoever tackles or touches him with their pinky will get an ear full of coach and run a screw up lap around the field. He was icing his left shoulder yesterday after landing awkwardly during a pass catch attempt. He was expected back full strength during evening practice.

The secondary is struggling with defending the pass attack of the West Coast Offense, especially during Wednesday’s practice session. Kicker Chris Tinius has been nursing a groin injury and has been performing conditioning drills and stretching during practice sessions.

Western Kentucky Football - Two A Days Begin

Two a days begin today and with a morning practice session and with almost a week of practice behind them the Tops are making strides in being more efficient on both sides of the ball. The quarterback competition looks to be more of a two way race now as Pelesasa and Jakes are getting the majority of the reps.

Freshman Brandon Doughty has the biggest arm of all three but is inaccurate at times, especially out of the pocket, as he threw a couple of groundballs to receivers in the morning session.

Pelesasa seems to be getting more confident in running the offense and made some good throws this morning. Although he did severely overthrow a very wide open (6’6” tight end) Jack Doyle in the end zone on a ball that Manute Bol with a jet pack would not have hops to catch!

On goal line drills from the three yard line the offense and defense were battling it out with each other with the offense winning the war when the dust settled. Both sides of the ball were rowdy after big plays were made with each side chanting at one another, making the goal line plays very competitive. When the offense would pump the ball in the end zone the Hilltopper Fight Song would ignite from all the offensive players.

Coach Taggart and his staff are working well together in creating an environment of encouragement, excitement, and discipline. You will often see a coach sprinting through the sea of pads and helmets after the whistle has blown to praise a player for a great effort and rewarding them with multiple taps on the helmet. They are also not afraid to get in a player’s face when need be. There seems to be a good vibe amongst the players and coaches during the flow of practice.

Wide receiver Willie McNeal did not help himself in winning the punt return job today by letting a punt bounce over his head, then jumping to swat the ball with one hand, touching it which makes it a live ball, then chasing after it and fumbling it some more. Yeah, the ball won that battle which resulted in Mr. McNeal getting yelled at and running a penalty lap around the field. Hopefully this will serve as a reminder for him to practice his shot blocking on a basketball court.

In other news, a player (not sure who) was stopped midway in his trot to the Gatorade break and was forced to return to the sidelines by coaches in order to show more hustle to the Gatorade break! How awesome is that? Which got me thinking, a Gatorade break for them is like recess. In grade school, I don’t recall ever walking to recess, I always ran because the faster I got there, the more time I had to play duck, duck, goose or annoy some girl I had a crush on. Most of the time the girl would annoy me.

Western Kentucky Football Training Camp Day 1 Review

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.