What is John Cooper up to? You mean, besides swaggin' around Columbus in his Lexus and (assumedly) visiting the top-tier establishments in the Columbus area? Well, he checked into Buckeye practice today, if only (again, assumedly) to stay sharp on the latest coaching practices in case he gets a call to return to the FBS coaching ranks.
Anyway, here are some random observations from Thursday's full-pad practice. (And an uncut interview of birthday boy Luke Fickell).
- Tyler Moeller, Jamaal Berry, Solomon Thomas, Jeremy Cash, and Ron Tanner all had yellow "injury" jerseys on.
- The Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions had scouts in attendance. Unsure of why the Browns had a scout there, seeing as their roster is stacked full of talent for the next decade.
- Stan Drayton plays no games. During receiver pass-blocking drills, Drayton must've been fed up/wanted to prove a point, because he singled out Devin Smith to go against him. Things deteriorated for Smith quite quickly, as he was thrown to the ground repeatedly by Drayton, while Smith's fellow receivers yelled at him to get back up.
- Boom Herron runs hard. Some folks have chips on their shoulder. Herron appears to have developed enough to fill an entire Lay's bag. I was about 50 yards away from him and could almost feel the anger he was running with. Also, later in practice during Red Zone drills, Boom was standing near the sidelines barking encouragement to his teammates. These are the things people point to when they call somebody a "leader". It was quite obvious to see Boom is using all of this adversity for motivation.
- Verlon Reed continues to impress, making one wonder how far he could've been had he played receiver in high school.
- Christian Bryant had a nice pass-break up during one sequence today.
- Kenny Hayes put big Cris Carter on a spin-cycle during one play.
- Travis Howard had a nice, athletic break-up on Verlon Reed on the sidelines.
- Orhian Johnson & CJ Barnett appear to be your starting safeties this year.
- Rod Smith had a bouncing run up the middle that would make Roy Hodgson say, "he had the balance of a veteran sailor in the middle of a sea storm."
- Jake Stoneburner, when split out wide, looks like a natural. Had some very smooth catches today.
- Joe Bauserman had some of the better throws today. Anything down the field came from Bauserman.
- Braxton Miller displayed some accuracy problems, but he also showed flashes outside of the pocket. On one of those scrambles, however, he unleashed a pass which set the game of football back five years. (It looked like he had gripped the cone of the ball and attempted to throw it like a tomahawk).
- While Pryor had those gliding runs to the outside, Braxton shows great cutting ability. One play in particular, he was going to the sidelines and easily cut back between two defenders. Granted, quarterbacks weren't live today, but the speed (and genius) of the cut would have caught the defenders off guard anyway.
- Expect Carlos Hyde to be a big time contributor this year.
- Orhian Johnson, Christian Bryant, and Travis Howard appear to have their own congratulatory handshake, and it's awesome.
- Evan Spencer had some nice catches today.
- T.Y. Williams is going to be a monster once he gets the whole "catching the football" thing down. He's about three heads taller than anybody on the team and it's hard to envision a cornerback in the country that could stop a fade-route in the corner to him. He had some drops today but he also had a nice catch for a touchdown.
- The Red Zone could be quite the adventure this year. There were multiple over and under thrown balls which were easily broken up by cornerbacks. Obviously, having a four-headed hydra at your running back position could help, but it's hard to envision the Buckeyes throwing the ball a lot in the Red Zone.
- During the Red Zone drills, the defensive line destroyed the offensive line, repeatedly. Braxton did escape pressure one time and turned an almost certain loss into a 12 yard gain. When Bauserman came in, the blocking got better, allowing Bauserman to hit T.Y. Williams for the aforementioned touchdown.
- Drew Basil was 2/2 from 42 yards out. Cleared both kicks quite comfortably.
