Wyoming’s first practice in full pads, and fifth overall of fall camp is in the books. The Cowboys worked out for about two hours in War Memorial Stadium under cloudy skies and cool conditions early. The sun came out near the end to heat things up.
And speaking of heating up I think putting the pads amped up the intensity — at least at times.
“The physicalness was good, but it wasn’t where we want it to be,” coach Dave Christensen said.
UW scores just about every drill of every practice, and Christensen said the defense won this practice by 2.5 points.
One of the more intense periods was the one-on-one tackling and blocking drills. The hit or highlight of this came when true freshman linebacker Oliver Schober picked up sophomore running back Alvester Alexander and slammed him to the turf. Well, it wasn’t exactly a slam, but the attempt was there. Alexander didn’t like it and some pushing and shoving started, but ended about as fast as it started. Just a part of fall camp.
The Cowboys had a couple of receivers go down with injuries with senior Travis Burkhalter and junior DeJay Lester, and junior defensive tackle Alex Stover may have aggravated his nagging groin injury. Stover stayed on the field after he was hurt and I asked him if he was OK and he said yes. Christensen didn’t have an injury report after practice.
Starting and backup jobs have not been won or lost yet, but some interesting patterns are forming:
–Alexander, Nehemie Kankolongo and James Davis are all rotating at running back with all three offensive units. Davis is having a good camp and may be in the rotation when the season begins. See my story in Tuesday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle and Laramie Boomerang on that.
–Two true freshmen offensive linemen are getting a lot of work with the No. 2 unit — Skyler Hinton at center and Justin DiRe at right tackle.
–UW returns all four of its starters in the defensive secondary, but right now, the two backups at cornerback are sophomore (and converted running back) James Caraway and true freshman Marqueston Huff. Sophomore Luke Ruff and junior Eric Mitchell are getting most of the reps at both safety positions with the twos.
–As far as defensive tackles go. Stover and redshirt freshman Patrick Mertens are No. 1, but when Stover went out sophomore MIke Purcell took his place. Sophomore Ben Durbin and JC transfer Kurt Taufa’asau worked with the twos. B.J. Sumter and true freshman Tyler Strong were with the threes.
–True freshman Emory Miller Jr. is the No. 3 quarterback right now behind sophomore Austyn Carta-Samuels and senior Dax Crum. True freshman Sam Stratton is No. 4.
The catch of the daywent to JC transfer and walk-on receiver Jonathan Aiken. He leaped high in the corner of the end zone for a TD on a pass thrown by Miller Jr. Aiken looks impressive.
UW also added another receiver, a freshman speedster from California. See my story tomorrow for more on him at www.wyomingnews.com and www.laramieboomerang.com
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