Catch up time

While I was off the juice that is the internet, WVU held their first two practices. What is there to report from this? Well, they ran, and then they ran some more on the first day. No big surprise there. Coach Rod complained about dropped balls by the receivers, which I'm sure resulted in more running, even if it was just to grab the ball they just dropped. The second day? You got it, more running. The receivers didn't drop nearly as many passes. Here are some actual quotes of note from the second day of practice from Blue Gold News:

The punting game: "Both of them have punted well," Rodriguez said of Pat McAfee and Scott Kozlowski, the former of which has seemingly locked up the placekicking position. "Pat McAfee has punted well and Scott Kozlowski has punted real well. We ask a lot of them. The last two days, in shorts, have been the best they have looked. IÂ’d rather have two goys doing it, where Pat McAfee would just kick and Scott Kozlowski would just punt."

This is somewhat important in my eyes because it is very easy for a kicker to wear his leg out if he is doing the punting and kicking. Coach Rod would do well to have Pat do the kicking, and Scott do the punting. Over a full season, it's just too much to ask a kicker to do both. I would rather split the duties up, than have Pat wear his leg out and be left with the second best kicker to handle field goals.

"I really like our young offensive linemen, from what I have seen in shorts. You canÂ’t tell much. The young guys, there are some good players. John Bradshaw, he is second (team, at tackle). Greg Isdaner is a guy who will be in the rotation. Frank Carduff has done some things at tackle, he will be in there. Tim Reed looks good. We are really young; there are a lot of young guys up front. We had a lot of freshmen last year and we have a lot this year."

This speaks well for the future, and if we can go the season without any major injuries on the offensive line, we should be fine. There's some big boys waiting in the wings!

The only real questionable comment is from the end of the article:

Defensive lineman Johnny Dingle: "He needs to be an every-down guy for us, not just third down. He can do it. He has the ability."

This can mean one of two things. One, Johnny is working hard to be an every down player, and coach is encouraging him, or two, Johnny hasn't been working hard and coach is trying to motivate him to get it going before the pads go on. As for me, I have been rooting for Johnny ever since he got here. He does need to be an every down player. I have stated before that the front seven is going to have to play lights out until the new guys in the secondary get their feet wet. And Johnny is a big part of that.