Quick Hits: Injury Updates, Body Transformations, Impact of Newcomers + More

Injuries/updates

“Roster-wise, Will Dixon is here. He practiced today. As far as injuries, Exree Loe practiced. I wouldn’t say he’s full speed yet, but he’s getting really close. And then Mike O'Laughlin, he’ll be limited early on, but we’re cautiously optimistic about how he’s proceeding.”

Quarterback updates

“Will Crowder was not out there today. He was a little bit under the weather this morning, so he did not practice so [Matt] Cavallaro got his reps. But the other three were out there. I think some good and some bad. The thing is that they throw on their own in the summer and we were able to do a lot more probably in OTAs throwing the ball, but they throw on their own. The good thing is they get repetitions. The bad thing is sometimes they’re not the same repetitions they would get if the staff was out there. So I think you get into a few bad habits. That’s probably where we’re at. We were a little bit late on some balls today and so we’ve got to get the ball out. But overall, I thought they knew what to do. Our timing wasn’t where it needed to be, but I think we operated well at that position.”

Emphasis improving the run game has had this offseason

“The run game is going to be a big piece of what we try to do this year, Graham [Harrell] will tell you that as well. That’s a point of emphasis and you have probably heard me say this probably on repeat, how do we get better? That’s the goal, how do we get better? Well, one way we have to get better is running the ball against the upper teams in our league. At times last year, we ran the ball successfully against the middle and the bottom of our league, but we didn’t run it against the top. And so it’s something, going back to when we started in January and the offseason, that’s been a focus. We’ve got to run the ball better against good teams.”

Guys who have improved physically over the offseason

“Let’s start on offense. I think Kaden Prather is one. When you go through, you know high school football, especially depending on where you played it, is so much different and you can see Kaden over the summer, it didn’t happen over the spring, but over the summer at some point it just clicked. And he understood what it took from a nutrition standpoint, from a strength and conditioning standpoint, and I thought he did a really nice job today in day one, but his body looks better and so I think he’s one. JuQuay Hubbard is somebody who continues to really change his body. Jordan White is a guy that from a strength standpoint, pound for pound, is as strong as anybody we have and that has been a great change is how he takes care of his body probably over the past six to eight months, not just over the summer. Justin Johnson, he’s somebody that continues to show. He had a really good spring, gained a lot of confidence in the spring and that carried over into the summer practices. If you go back and look, Aubrey Burks has really firmed up his body. A lot of confidence, he’s more in control, plays patient. Charles Woods has gotten considerably stronger. Lance Dixon is carrying more weight. And so those are some guys really off the top of my head that I think have done a nice job with that.”

Lee Kpogba

“You know what I really like about Lee and what I appreciate about him as a coach is he has got great energy. The kid loves football and he’s full of gratitude. He got here through a winding path. No silver spoon and he’s so so appreciative of the opportunity to go out and practice. And you can tell, you can feel the gratitude when he’s out there and the joy in which he plays with. He’s talking the whole time, it’s in good nature, and he practices extremely hard. You can coach the kid. He takes coaching.”

The importance of the newcomers in the secondary

“They have to help, that’s why we got them. Talking about Wesley McCormick and Rashad [Ajayi] I think they have to help and that was something we needed. We needed experience, that was clear coming out of spring that we needed experience. We like our guys, we like Andrew Wilson-Lamp, we thought he showed some time, but we needed experience in that room to match Charles [Woods]. McCormick made a couple great plays today on the ball, him and Cortez [Braham] really went at each other and I like the way those guys play. They both came in in May about the same time. But both those guys, talking about Rashad and Wes, they’re going to compete to play and we brought them in here for two reasons. We thought they could compete for starting spots at the corner position and also help us on multiple special teams.”

Saint McLeod’s status

“Yeah, Saint is not with us. I don’t foresee him being with us for fall camp. Jasir [Cox] is playing our nickel and spear position. He also gives us some flexibility when we go to our six DB package. He made one really nice play today. He has got the ability to get off blocks on the secondary. As far as our field edge guy, really smart football player too. And you look at the number of snaps we brought in and you look at all these preseason people who may have some question marks on is they’re not really taken on into effect. We added over a thousand reps, live snaps. James Madison, last time I heard they play really good football. North Dakota State, they play pretty good football. And Rashad at Colorado State, he had over a thousand live reps in the secondary. And so while maybe they haven’t played for us, they’ve played football at a really high level and those three guys have to be able to play for us and I believe they will. They had a really nice day.”

Open roster spots

“I think where we are now as far as, we’re always open. So we’re sitting there, I think we’re at 81 and if someone came on the waiver line at the right spot, we’re not closed. And so I think we have some guys that we want to keep some spots open for too if there are some walk ons who may prove they deserve to be put on scholarship for the fall.”

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