Saturday, March 17, 2007

A-Day impressions, Part I

Well, here we are at beautiful Jordan-Hare Stadium for the start of A-Day. Mercifully, the folks in charge have decided to keep the windows of the press box closed, which means I’m not typing this with frozen fingers.

The game just started, after a long (and mostly inaudible from up here) presentation of the spring awards. I’ll post those here as soon as I can get a list.

The first-team offense and second-team defense make up the Blue team; the second-team offense and first-team defense are the White team. But that could get sort of confused quickly, as guy move back and forth from the first team to the second team and vice versa. Coaches hinted at times that a few second- and third-teamers, especially the freshman quarterbacks, could get some time with the starters. That would certainly help guys like Neil Caudle and Steven Ensminger.

The Blue offense started strong; Brad Lester had a nice 25-yard run on an off-tackle play that he broke outside, and Brandon Cox threw a very good 15-yard pass to a wide-open Tommy Trott. The defense has tightened up as the offense gets into the red zone...as I’m typing this, the offense had 4th and 3 from the 19. And....Ben Tate stopped short. Not much celebrating from the defense, probably because they know they’re going to get yelled at by Will Muschamp anyway.

The second-team offense takes over...Blake Field at quarterback, Tristan Davis at tailback. Prechae Rodriguez and James Swinton the receivers. No fullback: They went with Gabe McKenzie and Brent Slusher in a two-tight end set. Second-team line looks like this, from left: Antwoin Daniels, Byron Isom, Mike Berry, Michael Hatter and Bart Eddins. I’ll get a list of the first-team offense when they retake the field, and I’ll also have both defenses.