Unlike yesterday, when the upperclassmen practiced first, and the freshmen practiced later on in the afternoon, today's session included the whole team.
You can find our practice report for yesterday's morning session and the practice report for yesterday's afternoon session on our site.
Today's practice got underway in front of a surprisingly packed audience. The practice started with some light position drills. Of note during these, Chaz Henry was really putting his leg to some punts.
Chaz Henry was named to the 2009 Ray Guy award watch list yesterday, ranking him among the Top 10 punters in the nation heading into this season.
Henry also showed off his arm a little bit today, throwing some fade routes in the endzone. Remember, he played quarterback in high school and was a pretty good one. I'm still waiting for Meyer to let him pull up and throw one downfield on a punt fake. After two years, I'm almost positive we'll see it this year, especially if we're in a tight game starting to lose the momentum.
Speaking of the punt unit, Jeff Demps was unblockable in punting drills. He routinely beat guys down the field and was the first one down to get the punt returner. He's a good bet to pick up a punt block or two this year, as well, assuming the coaches don't pull him off special teams since he'll be the starting running back.
Moving on to some of the more relevant positions to watch in fall practice, we'll start by taking a look at the wide receivers, particularly the freshmen.
Andre Debose had a couple of nice grabs, but seemed to have an equal number of drops. He also got a mouthful from the coaches on one or two occasions for lining up in the wrong spot. He's got the athletic ability, but as far as becoming more consistent and learning the playbook, he's still got some work to do.
He also was stretching out his hamstring after the paskel drills, which he reportedly tweaked prior to fall practice. It didn't really seem to be slowing him down on the field, though.
Another freshman wide receiver, the recently enrolled Stephen Alli, struggled a bit today, and looks like a bit of a project. Alli struggled getting off the line and clearly hasn't played with this much contact before, even before they put the pads on. He also dropped one that was right in his hands, which won't help him get on the field early.
The defense looked solid today and continued to be the ballhawking unit that they were last season. They came up with a couple of nice interceptions on the day.
Moses Jenkins went up and grabbed one over redshirt freshman T.J. Lawrence. Jenkins went into Lawrence after that one, talking it up like the DBs usually do. Wondy Pierre-Louis is the most infamous trash talker on the defense.
Joe Haden knocked Cade Holliday pretty good and the ball popped up in the air. Like he did four times in the 2008 football season, Brandon Spikes came down with it. The defensive coaches have really emphasized trying to pop the ball up if you can't make the play over the last two years, and it has really paid dividends. You have to love what Vance Bedford and Chuck Heater have done with this secondary after the atrocious 2007 season.
Markihe Anderson also recorded a pick off a Jordan Reed pass. Reed has been wholly unimpressive so far, even if he is a freshman. His passes have been low and he just doesn't look confident at all.
That's pretty much it from today, and that's probably the most news we'll get for a while, as the practices will now be closed to both the media and the public.
I do, however, know where they're practicing for the remainder of the fall and it's relatively open. I may try to sneak out there one day to see if I can catch a few glimpses.
Until then, stay tuned.
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