So last weekend I took my nephew down to Miami and we attended the June 22-23 Al Golden camps. Here are some thoughts:
Camp Organization -
Getting noticed -
Individual players -
Coaches -
Camp Organization -
- - The camp starts out with players registering, getting their height/weight, a jersey, and heading out to the field to warm up, stretch, and run the 40.
- - Once the 40s were done, they grouped all of the offensive and defenisve lineman together but grouped by age (senior, junior, underclassmen). They go through some offensive line drills working on their stance and on different blocking techniques, and rotate to different sets of coaches between drills (so the UM coaches work with all of the players there a little bit).
- - After the oline drills are done, the players get with Jethro Franklin and they do dline drills. On the first day Kehoe broke out a select group of oline on the side and worked with them instead of them doing dline drills. On the 2nd day Franklin had a group of select dline off to the side later in the day after 1 on 1s.
- - They did 1 on 1s after lunch, broken up into 4 groups (underclassmen, junior, senior, select). If you want to really get looked at by UM's coaches, you have to be in that select group. Golden, Kehoe, and Franklin were standing together on Sunday watching the 1 on 1s of that group pretty closely.
- - After the 1 on 1s there were some more oline and dline drills to close out the day. Many of the kids were getting hot and tired, and you could see some kids maintaining their technique while others started to get sloppy.
Getting noticed -
- - I can understand the complaints of that one guy who said you won't get noticed by the coaches if they don't know you. With most of these people, there's a grain of truth that is exaggerated into a mountain. The coaches mostly notice guys they already know, but there were other ways to get noticed (especially by volunteering during drills). It would be nice to get different kids more exposure, but the coaches have a job to do and the kids have to figure out a way to network with the coaches before the camp starts.
- - My nephew has some growing left to do (5'11" 265), but is a rising junior so he's got time left. If he grows like expected, he should be around 6'2" 285 by next summer. At that height and weight, he could rate a legit look by the coaches.
- - He did pretty well at the 1 on 1s. Did 14 reps over 2 days. Won probably 9-10 of those reps. Most kids lose the majority of their reps on the oline. The dline has a big advantage because they can go left or right.
- - He did do some networking with some 1-aa coaches. He talked to the oline coach from Samford for a little bit, so at least there is the start of a backup plan.
Individual players -
- - On the 2nd day after 1 on 1s, they started doing dline drills (my nephew is a guard all the way) so I walked over and watched the running backs drill. There was this kid doing the drill where they hit you low then hit you high, and you keep your balance. This one kid got flipped up into the air and landed on his back. The sideline erupted in laughter, guys were falling down laughing.
- - In that same drill I saw Madre London run and that guy is tough. Strong runner. Knocked the pad clear out of the coach's hands one time.
- - There was another kid who won Co-Most Improved with London but I can't remember his name. He was also a strong runner.
- - We watched QBs for a while, and there was one black kid with an orange jersey on who was drilling the ball on every thrown. QBs wore green jerseys, so I think they were just giving him a look. He might have been the Gray kid who committed.
- - I saw Michael Smith walking the sideline on Saturday. Also saw about 3 other recruits touring at one point or another.
- - Canes we saw: Chickillo, Seantrel, Duke, Dallas Crawford, Luther Robinson, Denzel Perryman (looked jacked).
Coaches -
- - Talked to Michael Barrow for a second and told him that his hit on Vanover was still my favorite.
- - Kehoe is funny as **** and was pulling no punches with the kids. I'm not gonna print half what we he said, but it was funny from the sidelines. He has not time for jackassery, and if he shows you a technique once you better get it the next time.
- - Golden was doing some kind of pimp limp on Sunday, or he's got a hurt ankle/calf.
