Defense Has Strong Performance in Friday Action
“I thought the defense did an excellent job today,” Tedford said of the
first day in full pads. “When we worked down in the red zone, I thought
the defense did a great job of rallying to the ball. I see a lot of
carryover from drill work with turnovers and people getting after the
football. I am very pleased with the defense; typically this early in the
game, the defense is ahead of the offense. I was pleased with everybody’s
effort, but I thought the defense really showed up today.”
The defense was aggressive the entire afternoon with senior Bernard Hicks
standing out with a pair of interceptions, and redshirt freshman Ernest Owusu looking good off the line. True freshman linemen Trevor Guyton and
Aaron Tipoti also had solid afternoons. Junior defensive back Jesse Brooks
continues to have a solid camp, breaking up one pass with a diving play
and also registering a tackle in the backfield and a quarterback hurry.
“I’m just playing real hard right now,” said Brooks. “That’s all I can do
out here in practice – taking it slow and going through my progressions.
Camp has been going pretty well. We covered a lot in the spring and we’re
making the little adjustments out here right now. We’re going slowly right
now, but once we settle in, we’ll be fine.”
Senior Anthony Felder and redshirt freshman D.J. Campbell each added
interceptions while true freshman linebacker Mychal Kendricks showed off
his speed pressuring quarterbacks.
The media focus following the practice was on tailback Jahvid Best. The
sophomore missed the last three games of 2007 and did not play in the
spring due to a hip injury, but he showed no ill effects in his first day
of full-contact drills. In addition to his well-publicized speed, Best
showed added power, hitting the pile hard and bouncing to his feet each
time.
“Jahvid took a couple of big hits today and that’s good for him,” Tedford
said. “That’s why you have to practice like that. We have some guys that
are fairly new, it’s important that you practice at game tempo so they can
experience that.
“You have to have game tempo; you have to let them play football
sometimes. They’re always trying to stay under control and practice at the
right tempo, but it really helps to let them play, and let them play
fast.”
Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory was also pleased with the first day of
full-contact drills.
“It was a good first day,” Gregory said. “We did some live stuff and the
guys flew around well and executed fast, which is always good to see,
especially with the new little wrinkles we have. We’re trying to do red
zone work every day. They really like that. It gets the blood-flow going
and the energy level up, on both sides.
“We’re just looking for guys executing the scheme and their techniques as
best we can, without thinking too much. We tried to keep things basic to
keep us playing fast today.”