Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Tuesday & Wednesday Practice Wrapups by fsufever

Fresno State Football – Tuesday - Wednesday Workouts

Linebackers

Fresno State has some good looking LB’s in the freshman class with size, speed and meanness. Some of the ones getting early attention are;

#30 Will Smith 6’1 - 205
#47 Ryan Machado 6’0 - 210
#55 Nico Herron 6’3 - 240
#56 Robert Schenck 6’2 - 250


The great thing about these kids is that no matter what their size is now, next year at this time they will have put on 10-40 lbs. of added muscle. For example, #43 Ahijah Lane came to Fresno State at 185 lbs. and now is about 5-10 lbs. over his listed weight of 225. In the Summer Workouts he outran most people in the Sprints that arose from challenges thrown during those Workouts.


Also, although they need, and are getting, a lot of instruction you will see that Herron and Schenck are already junkyard dog mean! They carry a load and they like to use it.

The Linebackers that are working out with the Big Boys at the present time are;

#51 Dwayne Andrews
#10 Alan Goodwin
#34 Trevor Shamblee
#43 Ahijah Lane
#47 Ryan Machado
#58 Ryan McKinley

We have two injured Linebackers that we need back ASAP. #31 Marcus Riley (running, doing some agility drills) and #32 Quaadir Brown (who has a cast from hand to elbow and a sling on his right arm). I have no idea what’s wrong but the way he is favoring it I would take it for broken but I want to emphasize that I don’t know. How long before coming back? Too long, whenever it is.

Bear Pascoe #85 – One of our Favorite Players

This guy came to our campus as a QB. He was the hardest throwing QB I have seen at FSU since I started following them in 1956. The Receivers actually flinched when they caught the ball and they dropped more than they should have because of that. Coach Hill decided that because of the QB situation at the time and not wanting to waste this young mans abilities he would put him and his immense strength at Tight End where he would be needed over the next few years. Since then he has come along in a steady fashion and now seems on the verge of being a very good TE.


He didn’t miss a day during the Summer Volunteer Workouts and volunteered for every route and chased loose balls and did whatever he could for the team. He still had the problem of bouncing the ball off his hands and did not catch some of the balls he perhaps should have. But right now, just as Paul Williams did during his junior year of summer practice, he turned into a Receiver. Each day now he catches everything, and the Football belongs to him. He takes it away from the Defense with pure strength and he does not let go. He is fast enough and strong enough that it is very hard for the Defense to cover or tackle him and he may be a nice guy but he is starting to run over people.

When he blocks for the Team he locks on to ANYONE that he is responsible for and that guy is out of the play.

It’s a thrill for me that he is turning into this type of Player and it just shows what hard work will do.

All that and now during periods of the Workouts he is working as a Long Snapper. He seems to have good accuracy and extreme velocity on the long centers. He will do whatever the Coaches ask and will always say, Yes Sir, Coach, Yes, Sir. I’d sure like to meet his Parents and see how they did all this.

Punt Returns and Special Teams

Today they had #15 Josh Sherley take a few Punts along with some of the regulars and to show some of our speed this happened. #30 Elgin Simmons and #17 Marcus McCauley were teamed up on coverage. On a 40 yard Punt (by machine) that couldn’t have been in the air for more than 4 seconds those two guys while being blocked at the line of scrimmage outran the Punt. There were two guys that banged them and pushed them and they still outran the Punt. Awesome.


The Special Team coverage lasted for about 40 minutes today and they will keep increasing the numbers of people involved until they have a full team on the coverage.

Two a Day Practice

They have changed the Schedule and now will NOT have any second Practice until Friday evening about 8:00 pm. This will be a lead-in for the first Scrimmage of the fall at the Jim Sweeney Field at 7:00 pm on Saturday night.
-fsufever

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