Rebels Practice Report 8-13

First off, the weather was great today. It was slightly cloudy and it felt good outside - perfect football weather. I talked to someone with the team and he told me the three freshmen that have impressed the coaches the most are Jesse Grandy, Tim Simon, and Rodney Scott. The team will go full pads tomorrow.

Greg Hardy didn't take a lot of reps that I saw, but I stuck around to watch sprints toward the end and he was first or second out of all the d-linemen both times they ran. Hardy was running without a limp and running pretty fast. His foot was still pretty well taped, but that was a given.

Pat Patterson made some ridiculous catches today and caught everything thrown his way. He looked a lot more comfortable today and showed out. He has a spot in the rotation and again, I look for him to make a big contribution this year.

Kendrick Lewis is obviously the vocal leader of the defense. He and Marshay covered well today.

Emmanuel Stephens was very impressive today. He looked great in one on one drills and went around Bobby Massie like he was standing still for what would have been a sure sack on Nathan Stanley in 11 v. 11.

Staying with the line, Bradley Sowell looked pretty good in 11 v. 11. It's hard to tell until they put the full pads on, but he didn't look like a liability out there.

Dexter McCluster put a great move on Cassius Vaughn in one on one drills (strictly route running; the QBs weren't involved) that made Vaughn fall down.

Fon Ingram picked a pass off in one on one drills. He was later run over by Rodney Scott (who has been very impressive himself) in 11 v. 11, however.

The possibilities are endless with our backfield. Cordera Eason continues to show great hands and could be our third down back this year. The aforementioned Scott looked great in drills and in 11 v. 11. Simon also caught a pass out of the backfield in pass skeleton, continued to run the ball hard today, and, according the the guy I talked to, will stay on the offensive side of the ball for now. Brandon Bolden took a snap or two out of the Wild Rebel in 11 v. 11. Enrique Davis appeared to impress coach Nutt a couple of times today as well.

Tight ends: Gerald Harris' route running has gotten better. E.J. Epperson dropped a very catchable ball in 11 v. 11. However, he ran good routes and showed good hands earlier in practice. Layton Jones ran routes well and caught everything I saw the QBs throw at him. Z Mason has the best hands of the group in my opinion, but his route running lacks polish and he still looks like he's getting adjusted.

Quarterbacks: Jevan Snead had a good day. He showed better touch on his long balls today than he has any other day this week. Nathan Stanley was very impressive in an early drill involving those nets with pouches. The drill called for the QB's to throw over one net and into a pouch in a net behind it - both of the nets being the same size. Stanley was the only QB able to do this, and he did it twice. Clayton Moore and Raymond Cotton were both inaccurate early. Cotton threw long on the only long ball I saw him throw in 11 v. 11.

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