Open practice this week (Thursday 10am)

[hawkwing]

If you get a chance to come out and see the Cougars in action, take it.

[CrimsonCoug]

For those of us living outside of the warm glow of the Y, please be sure to send your thoughts and observations on practice.
Thanks in advance!
-CC

[hawkwing]

I went to the open practice, it was fun and great to get out to LaVell Edward's Stadium, as always. It was extremely hot and it makes me think the Portland State game is going to be rather unpleasant with 55,000 fans packed into the stadium during an even hotter time of day.

Here are some things that stood out to me, hopefully others can supplement this list.

Special teams play was very poor. 75% of field goal attempts were missed. 1 kick-off by Corey Edwards went out of bounds at about the 20 yard line, another kick off attempt where they weren't trying to pin in the corner landed at about the 10 yard line. Punting was adequate but not great. Multiple kick catches were dropped. I am worried our special teams will cost us a few games this season.

Receivers and tight ends looked slightly better than I expected, a few dropped balls on catches that should have been made and a few tough catches were made. No one looked perfect, but no one looked wholly bad either. Bushman for the TEs had several good catches and runs after catch, but I also saw him drop a pass that should have been an easy catch. Of the receivers I thought Neil Pau'u and Akile Davis looked good. Beau Tanner had a couple good receptions too.

Matt Hadley was practicing with the LBs and he looked really fast if a bit undersized in that group. I think he could be a great addition there, as long as he isn't needed to stop a big RB.

Speaking of the defense, the defense spent some time practicing pick-6s, as they usually do. But they added an element here where they were practicing celebrations after scoring the pick-6. It added a little enjoyment and the fans seemed to enjoy it.

Mo Langi is a really big kid. He wasn't involved much in today's practice except in position drills. I watched him a few times get out of the block and engage. He's very big, but he's very slow and unless a RB is running directly at him I don't think an offense would really have anything to fear from having him on the field. But with his size, he can eliminate an A gap run in limited situations. It sounded like in another popup drill Mo did get his mits on an interception, but I wasn't watching that particular drill at the time and am speculating based on what I heard yelling from the staff on the field.

For running backs it seemed like Squally did most of the running that stood out today. He felt a little faster than I remembered from last year, he also would run the ball down to the endzone every time he carried the ball, regardless of when he was whistled down. I like that gumption. Riley Burt had a couple of nice looking runs in scrimmage type situations going against 2nd and 3rd team defenses, as did KJ Hall, but that guy looks ridiculously small out there. Dye didn't do much that stood out to me but drop a few open passes.

DBs played fairly well, in my opinion. Troy Warner had a couple of breakups and hits right as receivers caught the ball. Hannemann had a really nice play on the first play of the practice. Michael Shelton stood out to me for being the smallest guy on the field.

I don't have a lot to add to the OL, but Koroma is huge, his arms alone are the size of mountains. I felt like the OL had a pretty good surge on rushing plays and held the pocket fairly well on passing downs. There were very few sacks.

In OLine v DLine 1 on 1 drills Sione Takitaki looked like an absolute beast and had no quit to his motor. Handsome Tanielu also stood out to me for his motor and drive in the 1-on-1 drills. I saw Corbin Kaufusi several times on the sidelines, he's very tall and hard to miss, but it didn't feel like he participated much in any of drills or situations.

QB, Tanner Mangum looked much better than in the Spring so that was a relief. He had a nice, 40 yard long throw down the sideline that was caught right at the endzone for a TD and generally threw the ball quite well. He had one INT in 1-on-1 drills that was a poorly thrown ball, but overall had a good day. He also ran for a TD from the 3 yard line when all the receivers were covered.

Beau Hoge and Koy Detmer both looked about what you would expect from them. They throw the ball well and looked good in the pocket for the most part. I will say I was pretty impressed with Kody Wilstead. He looked the part of a star QB, standing tall in the pocket and throwing with some real zip and velocity. Critchlow also had some nice throws. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the QB play.

That's what jumps out to me right now. Let me know if you have any questions or observations of your own you'd like to add.

[hawkwing]

Some video of the celebration practice.

[nuk13]

This very informative. Thanks Hawk. The video is funny and I hope they can keep this kind of spirit.

[Mars]

I've read that the FG kickers have been terrible for weeks now.

[BroncoBot]

I've read that the FG kickers have been terrible for weeks now.

Good thing BYU has never had to rely on kickers to win games.

I know this gets brought up every year, but why can't byu get a decent kicker?? of all places, BYU should be overflowing with em.

[YNot]

Though Squally is no JW, I don't think the rushing game will be a weakness. He looked good and fast! Had some nice explosive acceleration and juke moves.
And, lots of dump passes that will get decent yards after the catch.

I actually saw quite a bit of potential in the touches from Dye and Kafentzis (#2). I think Kafentzis could be a playmaker. He seems to have a feel for using blocks, spacing on routes and in open field after the catch or breaking through the line. Played some RB and skat back.

TE's look good. Balderee and MLP stood out more than Bushman - though Bushman didn't look bad. Nice seam routes that will be open. Also, some fantastic out and wheel routes. Many times they caught the ball in stride with a much smaller defender as the first tackler. These guys will break through arm tackles. I think we see plenty of big plays from the TE group.

First string oline looked fine. I was not overly impressed with the oline depth. Too much QB scrambling. Or, may be the dline depth is that solid.

Absolutely agree on Wilstead. He looks the part and had some great throws. He did make some pretty poor reads.

There was an absolutely spectacular INT by DB Lee. It was a deep out route and he leaped and fully extended to make the catch right on the side line. Great athleticism and fantastic hands to reel it in.

My favorite parts of practice were the INT drills and the endzone celebrations and the oline running routes and catching passes. In one celebration, the player held the ball like a machine gun and the other players toppled over one at a time, down the line. Pretty funny.

In the oline passing game, Koroma was playing tight man coverage on Nwigwe. It actually looked pretty good. I saw plenty of good hands among the lineman, including some deep post routes and over-shoulder catches. I was impressed that the big guys could move that fast and make some athletic catches. May be we see some tackle-eligible plays at some point this season...

[hawkwing]

Great point YNot, I was going to bring up the passing drills with the OLine but I forgot in my original post. There could be some possibilities for a tackle-eligible trick play here or there.