Monday, Sept. 15
Venue: SprinTurf
Format: Full-pads, wrap up but don’t take down, contact in 11-on-11 drills, don’t hit the quarterbacks.
Practice rundown: Position drills, 7-on-7 skeleton drills, first-team offense and defense vs scout team, 11-on-11 team drills, special team drills.
Highlights: Senior running back Jerrel Brown looked explosive and elusive in both position and team drills with the first team offense. He looked difficult to bring down and made a number of scout team defenders miss. He ran for 49 yards on 13 carries last week against Western Michigan.
Although redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Linehan has taken all the snaps in the Vandals first two games this season, sophomore quarterback Chad Chalich took some reps with the first team offense. Chalich threw a jump ball to junior receiver Jermaine Johnson who out-leaped senior corner back Delency Parham in the back of the end zone.
Freshman running back Aaron Duckworth took some reps with the first team offense near the goal line in offensive drills. Junior running back Elijhaa Penny also took reps in goal line packages.
The offense experimented with some bootlegs and rollout passes with Linehan. He made a few nice throws while on the run in team drills, targeting sophomore wide receiver Deon Watson quite a bit. The offense also ran some read option against the scout team defense.
Other Observations:
Sophomore punter Austin Rehkow continues to get nice hang time on his punts. In special team drills many punts had so much airtime that the returners didn’t get a chance to return. Despite there being three other kickers and punters on the roster he still appears to be unchallenged for both spots.
Brown looks to still be the lead back in the running back committee. He appeared to take the most reps with the first team offense.
Junior safety Chris Edwards shined against the scout team. He intercepted a Jake Luton pass, who has a firm grasp as the No. 3 quarterback.
Starting tight end Justin Podrabsky and senior defensive end Maxx Forde did not practice. Freshman running back Isaiah Saunders, sophomore tight end Eric Lemke, freshman defensive linemen Will Schmidt and sophomore safety Desmond Banks also did not participate.