DAY TWO:
Had to grab some of that cafecito from the little Spanish spot next to my house because the girls working there are thick! I originally only went in there to see them, but now my *** is addicted to "un colada!"
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They had a couple beautiful/friendly ladies serving up continental breakfast. I don't know who's wives they were, but lawd! Ya boy Macho was going back for seconds.
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This is what I've been waiting for. I wanted to see practice. Up close and personal. I wanted to feel the energy.
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First and foremost, the energy and tempo at practice is unbelievable. Nothing like we've seen here in a long time. There is absolutely zero stagnant movement or downtime. There are coaches all over the place and the attention to detail is extreme. You can tell that a few players are still getting used to the new tempo. I was mostly concerned with what we're going to be doing on the back end of our defense, so I paid the most attention to Addae and Steele during individual drills. TC looked to be the most polished CB with Blades following right behind. There was a lot of man technique teaching. I don't know what our previous staff taught, but Addae had to go back to square one apparently. You ever wondered why we struggled in man coverage under manny, and why Blades would continue to get beat inside like a drum? Welp.
I know it's still early, but I haven't seen the defense look this stingy in a long time. Don't get me wrong, the offense made their share of plays, but they have good players too. What I liked the most during 11-on-11 was how contested most plays are. Even if a guy catches a ball, there's a tackler right on top of him. No more simple dump off routes going for 20 yards.
Also the LB's look 10x better in this scheme. Steed is playing some ball.
We're playing a lot of cover-3 so you will see Safeties roaming in the box, specifically Williams from what I saw.
Also Avantae is a freakin' stud. He had several great plays on the football, and made a good open field hit on X. Restrepo caught the ball in the open field and was about to get jiggy when Tae broke down and smacked him. He's going to thrive in this scheme. Overall the tackling looks much better so far largely due to the simple fact that defenders know exactly where they're supposed to be, and there's not as much open field, even when somebody catches the ball.
TC and Ivey were the first team CB's with Blades at the Nickel spot. Williams and Tae at the starting Safeties.
I loved the energy and competition I saw from both sides of the ball. Defense made their share of big plays and both sides were competing and getting rowdy. You really can't help it, because the energy at Greentree is infectious.
Steele described us as a "press team". We will be pressing on the outside majority of the time even in zone coverage.
We will base out of a 4-front but will also utilize plenty of Odd front stuff. (specifically the "Mint" front aka Tite Front)
In reference to who will be manning the Rush OLB spot (aka The Jack) Steele said...
"We have a kid who's gonna be a great one, he's just built like a pencil right now."
Interesting tidbit - Steele has 18 different coverages to defend Trips (3x1) formations.
This guy is a defensive wizard. We're lucky to have him.
Steele on the board while I annoy him with 39 different questions...
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Oh, and there were cookies too.
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