Sure sign that it’s Monday morning: while walking to Spaulding Field through the apartments, I could hear my neighbor’s alarm in eternal beeping mode. Walking back, it was still going. Happy Monday to all…now to Monday’s early practice.
The team was just in shoulder pads and shorts so no live action took place. They will be in full pads in the afternoon and the practice will end with a period of live looks.
Just when it looked like junior Richard Brehaut might be ready to distance himself in the quarterback race, both Brehaut and resdshirt junior Kevin Prince regressed according to coach Rick Neuheisel.
“Neither one was sharp today,” he said. “Not good enough. They were just missing balls they shouldn’t miss and haven’t missed. We’ve got to be sharper and we’re going to demand that.”
When asked for specifics, he said they weren’t “relaxing” when pressure came and it definitely looked like the blitz pick-up was lacking today.
Kicking it deep?
During the lone kickoff drill of the morning, walk-on redshirt freshman Joe Roberts was the only kicker booting them deep. Sort of. He hit two in a row that fell to the up back on the return team.
“Joe’s talented enough to do it, I just got after him because he was slowing down the drill,” Neuheisel said. “We’ll do it again the next drill. I’m not saying that competition is over, we’re just taking a look at what we have.”
Redshirt freshman Kip Smith didn’t take any kicks. Apparently, Neuheisel thinks he’s “talented enough” as well but didn’t use him.
When asked if he’s concerned that neither will step up, he had this to say: “You just look around to see what else you can do. We want to create as much competition as we can.”
“Looking around” might mean bringing someone else in. Half joking or not, Neuheisel gave Roberts the business after his two short ones saying, “Am I going to have to go down to a junior college to find a guy who can kick it back there?”
Beached Bruins
The team used its day off to take a trip to the beach. Neuheisel said redshirt senior defensive tackle Nate Chandler was the best body surfer of the bunch.
“He was mistaken for a shark once but other than that, he was fine,” Neuheisel said.
Redshirt sophomore wideout Ricky Marvray seemed proud to announce that his beach volleyball team of Aaron Hester, Andrew Abbot and Sheldon Price went 4-0.
Who was on the opposing squads?
“It don’t matter who they were, we killed them,” he said.
Injury update
Sophomore F back Anthony Barr and sophomore safety Dietrich Riley returned to the field today. Neuheisel said he hopes to have senior safety Tony Dye and senior receiver Taylor Embree back “soon” as well as players who have missed time because of concussions.