Thursday, April 2, 2009

Thursday's practice

A poster on one of my last entries asked if the intensity level was up this year at Aggie practice. After watching Thursday's spring session, I can confidently say yes.

Look no further than the defensive line, where coach Jesse Williams ran his unit through an assortment of drills. Williams was riding his players at every turn of the way. In on the action were Donte Savage, E.J. Cannon, Kawika Shook, Chris Romero and Dejuan Yates, among others. Williams didn't accept anything less than maximum effort and execution. He was loud, enthusiastic and in their faces. I just wonder about the D-line. It's Williams' job to be tough on them, especially at this point in time. But last year, this unit was a major problem area on the team. It was young and undersized. Improvement here is a necessity.

Defensive backs coaches Mike Rutenberg and R. Todd Littlejohn are both fiery. And Walker has been very hands on with the DBs. This could be an area of strength as the season develops.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the DL will be solid next season. We also have a 6'4 290 JUCO DT who signed with UNM out of HS, and picked NMSU over offers from Arizona, Washington, Washington State, Louisville, and San Jose State.

Anonymous said...

I think we were undersized for a 3-4. I don't think we will be undersized this season. We have Sioeli Fakalata who is 6'3 313, and Vincent Federico who is 6'4 290. I also believe David Niumatalolo 6'2 265, and John Finau 6'1 295 will also get some time. I think we are going to be pretty big at the DT. I don't believe we have to be very big at DE for this defense. I think Fils, Savage, and Shook have perfect size for this defense.

BigJohn's Blog said...

I want to hear about the battle at QB, EVERY DAY!!!!!!!


Thanks for the updates!

Teddy said...

6:40

Fakalata was moved to offensive line. At least this was on the depth chart but I'll get an update for you.

BigJohn
From my vantage point, Walls was getting a lot of work again on Thursday. He seems like a big kid with a feel for the game.

Anonymous said...

Speed will be of vital importance in the QB position, Fleming seems to have the edge on that.

Anonymous said...

QB play is the big question.
With no one taking a D1 snap, Aggie fans are bitting there nails that we have a good QB to try and avoid the 2005, 0-12 train wreck!

I'm not worried about anything else. The staff is pretty tough and very hands on. They will not allow anyone to coast.

BTW,
How does Niaumatalolo look?
I was big on him as a true freshman starting and I hope he's not too rusty cause, I think he can really help us!