Zach Cunningham set up for a superstar season in leading our defense
Kyle Shurmur looked good under center in spring game. Expecting a big year from Kyle
Bryan Reynolds is crushing it
I thought we looked good on both sides of the ball. We’re loaded on defense. Need to stay healthy on the d line but Nifae and Adam are really good defensive tackles. I was impressed with Kyle, Stank and Wade. Deuce is learning but made some good plays. Really impressed with Khari Blasingame, Josh Crawford and Jair George at running back. We’ve got good depth at running back. Ralph didn’t play, but Ralph will be ready for South Carolina. Dallas Rivers didn’t play a lot either, but he’s had a good spring. Trent Sherfield had some nice catches. Like where Trent is. C.J,.Duncan had some good plays. C.J. looks back and will be a weapon. Caleb Scott did not play, but he’ll be key at wide out in the fall. Ronald Monroe looks like he’ll be an explosive playmaker for us on the perimeter. Darrius Sims is going to help us in the return game and I hope we can figure out ways to get him the ball on offense. O line looked fine. We had trouble with the snaps some, so that needs to be a point of emphasis. Defense looked solid. Emmanuel Smith had a strip and a return for a seven. It was a beautiful play by our nickel back. Our leaders on defense are Oren Burks, Zach Cunningham and Nigel Bowden. They are all three stellar. Zach’s a potential All-American and Oren is close. Nigel coming back from bad concussions last year, but he’s going to be outstanding. Coach Mason gave just four looks on defense, so there are a lot of schemes that we will have ready for South Carolina. I think this spring game was more about our offense. We’re going to have a stellar defense, we just need to be outstanding on offense as well. We’ve got potential for that.
Concerns are staying healthy on the defensive line, but the guys we have are good, and really we have nine or 10 guys up front so we’re good there overall. O line needs to improve over the summer. Quarterback needs to get better, but Kyle looks like he can be a terrific quarterback and Wade and Stank look more than capable. Tight ends need to have a good year for us. DeAndre Woods didn’t play and he’ll be welcomed back with open arms. DeAndre was awesome last year until he got hurt, so he’ll be huge there. Nathan Marcus, Jared Pinkney and Sam Dobbs need to step up their play in the offseason and in fall camp.
I like the potential of this team. I really like our new young coaches and the vets we have working with them. Coach Ludwig is of course offensive coordinator and coaching tight ends, so that’ll be huge for our tight ends’ development. Coach Gerry Gdowski will coach the quarterbacks and be our recruiting coordinator. Really love the addition of Chris Marve at linebackers. He’ll be super. Like Cameron Norcross with the o line. He’ll do some great things. Coach Mason is superb with the defense and with the decision making overall. Love Coach Ludwig. Coach Jeff Genyk has really done a full overhaul of our special teams and he’ll coach our running backs. Like what Genyk is doing. Cortez Hankton moves into his second year with the receivers and our receivers looked good all except for a drop by Pinkney, but he’s a tight end. Coach Ah You and Coach Osia Lewis look like good additions to the defense and Coach Mattioli is back with the secondary where he’ll work with Coach Mason, who loves the secondary and is a master with it. I love the recruiting ability of this staff, too.
We had some guys who didn’t participate who will be there for fall camp. Andrew Jelks will be back at left tackle, DeAndre will be back at tight end and Ralph and Dallas at running back.
Jay Cutler was inducted into the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame at halftime. It was a nice tribute to Jay and Jay did a great job in his acceptance speech and with Laura Rutledge of the SEC Network when she interviewed him. Jay is a class act. He’s really come into his own as a person. He’s always been a tremendous player and has gotten a bad rap through the years. Hopeful this could be a big year for Jay and the Bears in 2016.
Like the potential of this team. Now time to get in the weight room with Coach Dobson and get ready for the fall drills. South Carolina, Thursday, Sept 1. The game will either be at 5 PM CT/6 PM ET on ESPN or the SEC Network or 8:15 PM CT/9:15 PM ET on either one of those networks. As soon as I know I’ll let you know. Let’s make Will Muschamp’s first game as South Carolina coach an unpleasant one.
No. 5 baseball won 17-7 over Missouri to sweep the Tigers with some stellar play over the weekend. Bryan Reynolds was huge. He hit three homers over the weekend. Bryan’s superb. Ro hitting it very well. Seventeen runs, 17 hits today. We are now 20-4 overall and 4-2 in the SEC. Huge week with Belmont Tuesday and South Carolina in a weekend series, Thursday through Saturday. Will be gigantic. SC is 23-2 and 6-0 in SEC. But Belmont, a backyard rival, is first. Still figuring out our weekend rotation. Think I like Jordan Sheffield on Fridays but still evolving on that. Liked what Kyle Wright did last night and loved Mark Ruppenthal out of the bullpen last night. He’s tremendous. Hayden was OK today starting, but had control issues. Ryan Johnson did well for a while out of the pen, but struggled late. Weekend rotation is a fluid situation right now. Committed two errors today, but we hit it so well, it wasn’t as big of a deal, though you need to be good on defense always. Will have some things to work on this week for Belmont and Gamecocks. Tomorrow will be an important practice day.
MLB cranking up, so it’ll be exciting to watch DP on opening day, most likely Sonny, too. Sonny is scheduled to start against the White Sox at home a week from tomorrow, Monday, April 4th, and while the Red Sox haven’t announced their opening day starter Monday, April 4th at Cleveland, I’m hopeful it’ll be David. Mike Minor for the Royals, and Pedro and Ryan Flaherty of the Orioles will get cranking, too. Not sure where Mike stands with his injured shoulder/labrum, so will keep an eye on that. MLB season starts a week from today.
No. 49 Men’s tennis lost today to No.48 LSU, 5-2, but have been playing well lately. Next up at No. 16 Florida on Friday. Men are 12-9 overall and 3-3 in conference. Beat No.7 Texas A&M on Friday, 4-3, which was huge. We should move up in the ITA rankings.
No. 10 Men’s golf with a huge victory at the Match Play at Farmlinks Golf Club in Sylacauga, Alabama. Beat No.4 Auburn in the finals. Could very well move up in Golfstat rankings. Next week Mason Rudolph tournament at Legacy Course at home. Luke List finished tied 15th at the Puerto Rico Open shooting -7. The winner was Tony Finau who won in a playoff over Steve Marion and shot -12, so Luke with an excellent tournament. Luke and JC will play at the Shell Houston Open next weekend to see if they can win and get into the Masters the following week. Brandt gearing up for Augusta National. He lost his Sweet 16 match in the Match Play to Jason Day, who won the event today. He looked unstoppable. Brandt will be a factor at Augusta National though. He’s having a good year.
No.5 Women’s tennis is shaping into form after the huge victory over No.3 Georgia yesterday. Women’s tennis now ranked fifth in the country and could very well move up this week in the ITA rankings. We are now 12-4 overall and 5-2 in the SEC. Next up at No.27 Mississippi State on Thursday, 3-31, then at No. 39 Ole Miss on Saturday.
Vice Chancellor and AD David Williams gave Kevin Stallings a nice farewell in a statement and said there will be a national search for a coach immediately. I’ve thrown out some names. This will be interesting and exciting.
John Jenkins is now starting for the Phoenix Suns and playing very well., He was 3-of-3 Friday Night from trifecta and had four rebounds. The Suns aren’t that great, but John is making his mark. Fes should be back soon from his knee injury and the Warriors will welcome him back with open arms. Looks like Wade and Damian are leaning towards going out for the NBA draft. If they do, just want the best for them and they’ll be fun to follow. Not a totally done deal though, so will keep you posted on that. Our new coach will have a talented roster next year regardless.
Will have more later in the week.
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