Dear Old U.Va.

Fall Football Practice Starts

Saturday, August 07 2010 by Tim

I dropped by football practice for about an hour yesterday and thought I’d drop off a few comments real quick. I intend to watch more practices over the next couple days and I’ll report anything I find that is worth reporting. I’ll say that if there’s one common thread that runs across all the positive comments below, it’s “potential.”

• Verica is a head above the other QBs, and that shouldn’t come as any surprise. He’s the veteran with the most experience. He had a couple of nice deep throws, including one bomb to Burd for a TD that had the players and crowd cheering and the coaches running to congratulate both Verica for the throw and Burd for the route.
• That said, the other QBs are showing promise as well. I agree with other comments that Rocco looks like he’ll stay at QB. He ran one drill, alternating with Verica, and while he clearly lacked the experience, polish and poise that Verica demonstrated, he just as clearly showed the potential to be the QB of the future.
• Continuing the potential idea, the RBs look good. Perry Jones is a short, speedy dude. He gets lost in the crowd easily, but his burst of speed as he pops out of the crowd is so impressive. Mack and Wallace looked pretty good as well. Now if we can just convince the fullbacks to catch the ball before starting to run, we’d be in pretty good shape.
• One thing that London did that I liked – no matter what the play was (run or pass) and no matter how it ended (i.e. where the tackle occurred), London encouraged the player to keep running for the end zone. To me, it got the players used to expecting that plays should end with a TD. Beyond that, it added some energy to the day as London would be yelling “Keep running!”, “All the way!”, “Go!” and in some cases actually chasing the player down the field. Good play, Coach, good play.
• Watching some of the passing drills was quite fun. We’ve got some quality WR’s (if they hold onto the ball), no doubt. But we’ve got a REALLY good secondary. Dowling, Minnifield, Mosley, McLeod are good and the backups are no slouches either. So watching the QB and a set of WRs go at it on the field against the DBs… that was a pleasure to watch. There were great throws, there were great catches, there was great defense. I swear I could have watched that drill the entire time I was there. 
• The crowd was actually pretty decent yesterday given the time of the event. What made it actually look a bit smaller was the fact that the fans spread out seeking any shade they could find around the perimeter of the field. Speaking of shade (or lack thereof) and heat – sorry players…
• London has made some changes to the practice fields. They’re now lined with Virginia paraphernalia that I’m pretty sure wasn’t there before. Along the far wall (directly in front of you as you walk in) is what I guess is this year’s team slogan – “Think like a champion, act like a champion, play like a champion.” At least, I think I remembered that correctly. I’ll check again today. Overall, it adds a little bit more Virginia vibe to the place than was there before. Little better sense of family.
• I like the new practice shorts. Bookstore or Mincer’s – whoever has them first gets my business.

Well, that’s about all for now. I’ll check back in after the next practice I can make.