AJC > Sports > Falcons > Training Camp Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 01
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
A ban on Big Blue?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some observations from the last portion of practice:
You can take the coach out of Louisville, but…. A cameraman for Comcast was wearing a blue Kentucky shirt, and Petrino asked for a question to be repeated as he jokingly stared down the Kentucky supporter. “You see that shirt he’s got on?” Petrino asked in mock disgust. “Unbelivable. That’s unbelievable.” Then he asked for the question to be repeated. “Sorry,” Petrino said. “I was distracted by that ugly shirt.”
Keith Brooking is itching to hit. It’s obvious while watching the team scrimmage that the veteran linebacker is ready to go. You won’t be seeing full-contact anytime soon during training camp, but Brooking got a pretty good lick in on Jerious Norwood.
Those tracking the Jimmy Williams battle against Chris Crocker for the starting job at free safety might be interested in the fact that Williams hardly left the field during scrimmaging. They’re getting a good look at the second-year DB from Virginia Tech.
P.J. Alexander was working with the No. 2s at center signaling he’s moved ahead of Doug Datish, in the battle to back up starting center Todd McClure. Datish is a sixth-round pick from Ohio State.
In the last bit of action, D.J. Shockley was working with the third-team behind Joey Harrington and Chris Redman, although I wouldn’t read too much into it. Shockley and Redman have been getting pretty equal reps behind Harrington. That being said, Shockley made two nice throws during his work with the 3s. One was a deep out to Jamin Elliott, that showed off his arm strength. The second was completion to Noriaki Kinoshita right on Kinoshita’s break. Speaking of Kinoshita, I have no idea if this guy has any chance of breaking camp, but the 5-10, 179-pound Osaka, Japan native is a lot of fun to watch. He’s quick, and has potential to help the kick return game.
Darrell Shropshire missed practice with what Bobby Petrino called a twinge in his groin. That’s not good news for the middle of the D-line, a spot on the defense already thinned out by injury. Tommy Jackson got some extra work today with Shropshire on the sideline.
Permalink | |
Horn leads spirited drills
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s been about 30 minutes since practice started and wanted to jump in here and give a quick training camp update. And it has nothing to do with the air conditioning. Really, it doesn’t.
From where they were letting us observe, I had the best view of the group of wide receivers. The first drill the wideouts worked on was catching passes thrown behind them. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the teams confidence in the quarterbacks in camp. The key phrase for this drill was ‘stop and pivot.’ The coaches were stressing that the pass they were working on was dropped more than any other. The only wideout to drop a catchable pass was Roddy White.
Later, the media and some gathered fans had a front-row view of the wide receivers working with the Jugs machine firing footballs at the players from a few feet away. In a camp that has been curiously quiet from the players perspective, this drill had a ton of spirit.
It was Joe Horn who led the shouting. His leadership is huge for guys like Michael Jenkins and Roddy White and you could tell it was rubbing off, especially on Jenkins. Guys were yelling each other on, it was good stuff. Nobody dropped a pass, which is pretty impressive because they moved closer and closer to balls being fired at them. Man, Roddy White is smooth. He made this drill look effortless. There was only one bobbled pass, which led one observer to remark: “If they would have caught the ball like this last season, they would have won the Super Bowl.”
The other focus of the early session of practice was special teams, although they were really just going through the motions. Billy Cundiff and Michael Koenen shared duties kicking off. Japanese import Noriaki Kinoshita showed some quickness the couple times he touched the ball. Alright, I’m headed back into the heat.
Petrino: White having a good camp
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today is a 3:25 p.m. session and open to the public so we’re about to get started here shortly. After focusing on the tight ends yesterday, I’m turning my attention to the defensive line. We’ll keep an eye on Jamaal Anderson, like we have all camp. But specifically, I’m interested in the battles going on behind guys like Grady Jackson and Rod Coleman.
I was reading over the transcript from Bobby Petrino’s post-practice interview from yesterday and was interested in a couple comments he made that we didn’t use in our coverage.
The first is concerning the battle between Jimmy Williams and Chris Crocker. According to Petrino, both are doing a better job learning the system. He said this about Williams: “Jimmy is showing the range that we thought he would in terms of getting to the ball.”
Crocker has been practicing a lot with the nickel package as well. This should be one of the better positional battles as we close in on the preseason.
I’m also interested in the wide receivers. I read some comments from fans wondering if Roddy White was having a bad camp, and that hasn’t been the case. Earlier I wrote that he should be nervous because of the emergence of Laurent Robinson. But that had more to do with Robinson than White’s performance. In fact, both players have caught Petrino’s eye.
“I think Roddy White has had a really good camp so far,” Petrino said. “He’s thinner, he’s faster and he’s showing us he can catch the ball well.”
As for Robinson, Petrino said he’s been impressed with the rookie, although coaches are waiting to see if he hits a rookie wall after such a good start.
“Robinson is showing a lot of ability to make plays and he is also very mature and smart so the offense has not been hard for him,” Petrino said.
Steve Wyche wrote about Adam Jennings in today’s paper, so he’s got you covered there.
Joe Horn and Michael Jenkins are still entrenched as the starters, but the battle behind him has been a good one.
