I’m a day late, but I didn’t forget my loyal readers. Practice yesterday went smoothly — no big breakthroughs to report – but it seemed like some of the answers many have been looking for regarding position battles are starting to materialize. Here are some of my thoughts from Thursday’s practice:
First Down: As a wrote in my notebook in today’s edition of the Daily Campus, Jasper Howard has really emerged in the spring and is primed to be a big contributor this season. Despite the much remembered muffed punt in the West Virginia game, he has already locked up the punt returner role and it looks like he will be at worst the nickelback in the fall – one that would make Chad Kroeger proud.
Speaking of the Nickelback crooner, has anyone seen him in his latest video with Santana? He was already a bit goofy for a rock star, but he had his coif straightened and trimmed so it now makes him look like Ellen DeGeneres
Creepy, huh?
Never been much of a fan of the Kroegs, but I’ll always remember him as one of the guys to demand tickets to last season’s Ohio State-Michigan football game, thinking they were popular enough to do so. Turns out, not so much. I guess that’s what you get for using a guitar legend to create a techno jam.
Anyway, Howard’s biggest weakness is obviously his size. He’s listed favorably at 5-foot-9, 162 pounds, but what he lacks there he certainly makes up for in athletic ability. A lot of schools took a look at the Miami, Fla., native coming out of high school, but shied away from him, most likely because of his diminutive stature. But there’s no question, this guy can move. He’s one of the fastest players on the team, and defensive backs coach Scott Lakatos said he has good instincts and feel for the game.
Lakatos said that the Huskies are going to be implementing different players in different schemes this year, so Howard could see the field more often this year, especially if another 20 receivers go down and Darius Butler has to spend more time on offense.
Even when Butler was on defense yesterday, it was Howard on the opposite side of the field, not McClain for most of the afternoon.
But don’t forget about some of the incoming freshmen. UConn signed four defensive backs – three if Jerome Junior moves to linebacker – and that could shakes things up a bit, especially if Dwayne Gratz lives up to his billing as a three-star prospect, according to Rivals.com.
2nd Down: Now that Mike Hicks has moved back to tackle, he and Dan Ryan will be battling throughout the final week of spring practices for the starting spot at right tackle.
As it stands right now, Ryan appears to have the inside edge. He played with the ones throughout Thursday’s scrimmage and had a solid day. Both tackles are massive, as each weigh over 300 pounds, but Ryan seems to be the better athlete and is more fluid in his motions.
3rd Down: Another position battle going on is at strong safety, where Kijuan Dabney currently holds the starting role next to veteran Robert Vaughn. But Dabney isn’t sitting pretty, as redshirt freshman Jonathan Jean-Louis is having a great spring and is pushing hard for his spot.
Lakatos said that both are very similar players, although Dabney is a bit bigger. But the difference between the two seems to simply be playing time. Dabney spent the entire season on the sideline as a backup while Jean-Louis was on the scout team. Unless Jean-Louis shines in the summer, it looks like that experience might give Dabney an edge.
4th Down: Andre Dixon returned to practice after missing four consecutive sessions and looked like his old self, cutting and bursting through holes for big gains … Jimmy Bennett, a three-star offensive line prospect who signed a letter of intent to play for the Huskies next season, drove up from his hometown of Alexandria, Va., and was on hand for practice … D.J. Hernandez ran routes with the wide receivers without pads despite still having an aircast on his left foot for a sprained ankle … Yet another wide receiver was relegated to the sidelines, as Kashif Moore was held out of practice for undisclosed reasons. His left knee was heavily wrapped.
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