Powell Spring of 09

[FootballDad]

So, where were the RBs today?

 

 

I'm sure Darian Logan runs track, not sure about Mobley.

[powellbubba]

I'm sure Darian Logan runs track, not sure about Mobley.

 

It was Mobley and Pelosios who were not there. It will be interesting to see if they are there is afternoon.

[FootballDad]

First day of spring practice is usually an exciting time. Getting to see the players on the field again after a long winter. Some in new positions, some new players, some have grown. As soon as practice concludes today maybe some of you who got to go can post and give the rest of us a practice report. How did the D look? What new faces to look for and at what positions? Same for the O.

[HTV]

First day of spring practice is usually an exciting time. Getting to see the players on the field again after a long winter. Some in new positions, some new players, some have grown. As soon as practice concludes today maybe some of you who got to go can post and give the rest of us a practice report. How did the D look? What new faces to look for and at what positions? Same for the O.

 

 

 

I've been told by Coach Lowe that the Oklahoma Drill will commence at 4:05 PM this afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing just who is ready to hit somebody. /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

[HTV]

First day of spring practice is usually an exciting time. Getting to see the players on the field again after a long winter. Some in new positions, some new players, some have grown. As soon as practice concludes today maybe some of you who got to go can post and give the rest of us a practice report. How did the D look? What new faces to look for and at what positions? Same for the O.

 

 

Typical first practice of spring. The Oklahoma drill was rather spirited with a lot of hard licks being laid by the suspects one would expect to, and some hard licks being laid by a couple of younger players whom most of us hadn't seen before other than in freshman/jv games. It was hard to tell who some of the younger players were as they were wearing different numbers from the fall and there were quite a few duplicate numbers.

 

Dyshawn Mobley was particularly dominating. He was never really challenged in Oklahoma. Steven Ross and Matt Meade were a couple of others who looked good in the drill.

 

QB Hunter Hodge had an outstanding performance in Oklahoma, as well, pulling for his team mates from the side in his no contact orange jersey. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

 

As is usually the case early on in spring or pre-season practice, the defense was ahead of the offense once it went to team. It's really hard to pick out particular defensive players at this point. A couple who made nice plays were Hunter Cooke and Tony Foster up front. Mobley, who is going to spend a lot of time learning the linebacker spot this spring, made outstanding defensive adjustments, as well. He just looks at home there. I believe this defense is going to be solid.

 

The offense will come along. As you know, FootballDad, it takes some time for the offense to get its timing down, and especially an offense with as many new faces as Powell will have. I expect the offense to make a lot of progress between now and the Bearden scrimmage next Friday.

[PantherFootball1]

I agree alot with HTV on what he has already mentioned. I think this team looks to me they have been working hard during the off season. Give alot credit to Coach Lowe,Charles,& Hawkins for that. Defense has alot of what I call straight up football players. Guys who will get to the football and when they get there hit somebody. Thats with 2 or 3 players learning new poistion this year. I think for the next couple years we will have a better overall team defense than in past years.

Defense is always ahead of the offense at the start, but there were very few mistakes for a first practice. Very little jumping off sides, only a couple fumbles and I thought Hunter QB did a really good job running the team for his first day out. We look to have a pretty soild group of running backs with some power and speed. I guess one thing we need to improve on is catching the football. There were some drop passes today and I think this QB is more of pure drop back passer and we will need to have receivers that can catch anything that hits their hands.

 

We still have alot of good players in other sports now, so when those guys are added to the mix we should have a better feel for the team, but for the first day I would say it was a very good start.

[powellbubba]

My thoughts on the first day (as if I really know what I'm talking about):

 

The Oklahoma drill that started practice was as spirited and hard hitting as anything I've seen at Powell in many years. Mobley was tough on everybody he faced and I thought others that looked very physical were James, No. 37 (the new kid), Meade with the DBs, Staggs with the DBs and Foster and Norman with the lineman.

 

The team does look like they are in excellent shape. Powell is not going to be very big this year, but I think overall they are more athletic on defense than I have seen in a while. They may not have that standout D-I prospect, but on average a faster, more aggressive bunch than in years past. The backfield (potentially) of Meade, Staggs and Hamilton could be very good. Booth has added a lot of size and looks good at the strong safety position. The line is very fast and very deep if not overly big.

 

Offensively the team looked ragged because you have a new quarterback, three new lineman (with one returning starter playing baseball) and three of four receivers new to the starting lineup. There were a lot of dropped passes and, from what I heard, some wrong routes being ran. The defense is not only ahead of the offense, I wonder if this team could rely more on the defense and less on outscoring people like it has the past couple of years?

[SatchUmp]

Hey Powell Faithful,

 

Can you confirm that Powell will be going to Sullivan South for an after summer scrimmage? That sounds like a fun one!

[HTV]

Hey Powell Faithful,

 

Can you confirm that Powell will be going to Sullivan South for an after summer scrimmage? That sounds like a fun one!

 

 

I haven't heard that, but I'll check with Coach Lowe on it.

[powellbubba]

An added thought about yesterday's practice: I think this team could have the best overall set of linebackers the school has had in a while. Again, they don't have Baron Huber out there, but they have a lot of guys that seem like they are going to be very aggressive and are in good physical condition. The kid from Clinton, Mobley, Petree (and two still playing baseball) look to be, potentially, a good group. I know coach Lowe doesn't like playing kids two ways, but Mobley looks like a natural fit at linebacker to me.

 

You also have, again potentially, a group of DBs that appear like they are going to be better tacklers than in years past. Meade won't be the run stopping free safety Cardio was last year, but I'm betting he'll be much better in pass coverage.

 

I haven't heard they will scrimmage Sullivan South, but that would fit with Matt Lowe's style of scrimmaging the best teams he can find in the pre-season.

[HTV]

An added thought about yesterday's practice: I think this team could have the best overall set of linebackers the school has had in a while. Again, they don't have Baron Huber out there, but they have a lot of guys that seem like they are going to be very aggressive and are in good physical condition. The kid from Clinton, Mobley, Petree (and two still playing baseball) look to be, potentially, a good group. I know coach Lowe doesn't like playing kids two ways, but Mobley looks like a natural fit at linebacker to me.

 

You also have, again potentially, a group of DBs that appear like they are going to be better tacklers than in years past. Meade won't be the run stopping free safety Cardio was last year, but I'm betting he'll be much better in pass coverage.

 

I haven't heard they will scrimmage Sullivan South, but that would fit with Matt Lowe's style of scrimmaging the best teams he can find in the pre-season.

 

 

On the linebackers, this can potentially be a good group. It's hard to compare them with the group that Huber played with because that team played a 4-3 set. The linebackers were asked to do things completely different from linebackers in a 3-5 look.

 

The group of Lakin, Pressley, Allen, Abba, and Loope was pretty special at linebacker. If this group can equal what that group did I think we'll all be really happy with them.

 

The best DB group of recent years, in my opinion, was the group that consisted of Cole Patrick, Derek Milligan, Josh Cole, and Joe (last name escapes me at the moment), which was the 2002 season group. If this group is as productive as that group was the Panther defense will be fine.

 

On the potential scrimmage with Sullivan South, I'll ask Matt about it this afternoon. I do know that he is going to need to replace regular fall scrimmage foe Fulton, since Powell and Fulton are playing in a regular season game in week one.

[HTV]

Powell 2009 pre-season scrimmage schedule:

 

July 31 - Austin East at Powell

 

August 7 - Powell at Alcoa

 

August 11 - Powell at Sullivan South

 

Powell's lone spring scrimmage will be at Bearden, next Friday, May 8.