Open Practice 8.27.09

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While all you employed-types were slaving away at the sugar mines or on the subway getting shot and your hats run over, us unemployables and students got to enjoy an hour of open practice at Memorial yesterday.

Those of you who followed my twats yesterday already know, I’m no big city HydroTech or KenCraw.  I mean before I started reading CGB, I didn’t even know what a quanerback was.  So if you’re looking for detailed analysis of blocking schemes, you just keep on driving.

Tedford made it even tougher on my reporting ability by putting out multiple peeps with the same number!  At one point there were three #10’s on the field.  Three!  I thought I saw Jahvid Best, but it was actually Chris Little, I think.  He was playing D whoever he was.

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Not Jahvid Best taking a rest.  I think.  And Riley, Vereen and Holley running drills.

Since there was no scrimmage and for most of the time, units were broken up into individual drills, it was tough to follow what exactly was going on with every player at once.  Below are the things that stood out most.

One thing I can tell you is that the team looks sharp and FAST.  It doesn’t take a Marshawnthusiast to be able to tell that.  During the offensive drills there were few dropped or overthrown balls.  Kevin Riley threw a beautiful 40 yard spiral down the sideline that hit Shane Vereen in stride for an imaginary touchdown.

Practice started off with kickoff drills.  Tavecchio put three kicks in a row about 3 yards deep into the endzone.  He didn’t put one out of the endzone, however.

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After a few kicks, the team split into offense and defense to run game situations at midfield.  Take this for whatever it’s worth, but I don’t remember any big plays by the wide receivers.  That’ll give you hardcore self-loathing Cal Fans something to keep you awake for the next week.  But the drill didn’t last that long and there was only a few long throws.  You're also talking to a guy who couldn't tell if he was looking at the most recognizable guy on the team, so what do I know?

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Shortly after this photo was taken, Vereen caught the ball and scored his second imaginary TD of the day.

You know what I do know?  Isi Sofele is small, but crazy fast.  They listed him as WR on the roster we got.  Huh?  I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about what he did for fear of having Tedford close the games to the public too, but he caught a ball in the middle and was like two steps beyond his defender when he turned upfield.

The player that stood out to me the most was TE Spencer Ladner, a strapping buck from the heartland of America looks like he can handcuff lightning and put thunder in jail.  Totes cereal.  He caught a couple of passes in the middle for big gains.

Then the team broke up into individual groups doing football type conditioning stuff.

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This could easily be an in-game photo from 2001.

And then, He spoke.  When Tedford said we are the reason the Bears do so well at home I swear he was looking right at me.  I waved, but I don’t think he wanted to play favorites so he pretended not to see me.

Oh yeah, Tepper reminded us to wear blue for the Maryland game.  Don’t forget!  He even said to wear the "F@!# Stanfurd" shirt if you like.

Only eight more days...  Go Bears!