I went down to practice today as well. Definitely fun and interesting. My own brand of random thoughts:
>I'm extremely excited about the O-Line. There's a TON of beef up there and those guys can move. With Limegrover coaching them up, I think there's a lot of potential up there. I'm not in the least bit worried about running the ball this year, to be honest. No pads today, but there were routinely huge gashes for our backs between the tackles during 11-11 drills.
>On that note, let me say that I'm VERY worried about stopping the run. I know there was a huge thread on this about a week ago, but I didn't take the time to read it (lazy me). We're likely to have at least two VERY undersized LB's on the field at all times (Rallis, Cooper, Manuel), and those guys were getting caught up in the "wash" quite a bit today. Also, our DE's are pretty undersized as well, and I think it's likely we'll have to "sell out" to get up the field to rush the passer. Guys like Perry, Amafuela, and Cockran will really have to rely on speed to get the QB and this creates running lanes off-guard. We also have some inexperienced DT's, and without Hageman playing like a MONSTER this year, I just don't see how these guys can hang with most BT lines. I'm worried...
>I thought Shortell looked really sharp today. As another poster indicated, his throws looked tight and on the money. Great backup QB...
>Gray is obviously a monster out there, and he actually threw two or three really nice deep balls today and another intermediate route. He took too long a coupel times and tucked and ran, but who isn't OK with Gray running?!
>McDonald is the real deal. He made a spectacular catch along the sideline against the 1 defense with the JUCO corner (Balthazar?) all over him. He got a lot of reps with the 1's and 2's, so I don't think there's any doubt he'll be playing come Fall. Harbison looks pretty fit as well and was running with the 2's (behind Jones). He made one really nice play up the seam today...