Flew up to Annapolis to go to practice Friday and Saturday. Friday was more of a walkthrough, but Saturday was at the stadium and full throttle. I know I tend to be optimistic but overall I came away impressed. The offense is still running the basic stuff but they're getting good at it. The defense is ahead of them but they have their hands full. Some impressions:
- Horvath was running with the ones and Woodson the twos. Both of them have the potential to be stars in this offense. A lot of the misdirection is designed to put the quarterbacks in space, and they seem like they're taking advantage of it. Woodson had two long TD runs where he just made the most of a running lane and turned on the jets. They both look confident in what they're doing.
- The chatter about Horvath's improved passing isn't an exaggeration. He looks like a different player. I wouldn't exactly call it pinpoint accuracy, but he is absolutely a competent passer, at least based on what I saw.
- The passing game in general was impressive. It's definitely different from the option passing game of the last two decades... Watch old Delaware videos and you'll get the idea. There were several big plays. Heidenreich in particular was making plays downfield but he wasn't alone. There are still a lot of question marks about wide receivers since so many of them are out, but even with slots lining up at WR half the time, the passing game was effective.
- Thomas Scully looked like an actual TE and had a nice jumping TD catch. Lots of talk about Cody Howard's potential at the position when he returns. All the TEs seemed comfortable blocking (at least to my untrained eye) but we may get to see them stretch the field a little bit too.
- William Ingle was filling in at #3 QB and no joke, he looked like a competent QB. I wouldn't want him to start, and his passing was sort of like Fulton Reed slapshots, but he had a few good-looking runs. You don't often see a QB wearing #42 lol.
- Shane Reynolds was the FB running with the threes and he had some big runs. Big praise in general for both Fofana and Tecza, not that anyone will be surprised by that.
- I spent most of practice watching the offense since that's what's new, but the defense looked typically solid. Coach Volker singled out Job Grant in particular as having a fantastic spring at linebacker.
- Saw Cummings, Self, Bouton, and Purvis as the first-team OL. Didn't catch the fifth player. Saw Foulger, Nichols, and Crawford with the twos but my voice to text failed to get the other two numbers (sorry).
- Isaiah Bryant has been having a good spring at slotback. Also heard complimentary things about Amin Hassan and Brandon Chatman. Saw Bryant and Tyler Bradley running with the twos and Gaskins/Heidenreich with the ones although it was hard to track because there were also slots filling in at receiver.
Overall, plenty of reasons to be optimistic based on what I saw, but a lot of work to be done too.