Just a few things to pass along from yesterday's media availability --
Because of the weather, practice got split up and delayed. We were slated to talk to the quarterbacks and specialists, along with Ed Foley and Dave Patenaude. Since we had just talked to Patenaude during Monday's media day and the coaches were running late to a team meeting, we just talked to Foley.
Frank Nutile had a 5:30 class and Todd Centeio, as a true freshman, has not been made available to reporters during preseason camp. I'm noting that because I don't want people to think that Russo and Marchi were put out there to reporters and Nutile and Centeio were not because of any perceived early edge in the quarterback competition. Again, we'll see how that plays out.
So it seems Austin Jones has recovered and progressed from the torn ACL he suffered at Memphis ahead of schedule, and the coaches are indeed calling it an open competition at placekicker. Foley did say last night that "we haven't seen Austin do a lot this year yet." When Jones was asked last night if he has any limitations, he said, "Not really. Just a knee brace." Jones said he had humps to get past in terms of fighting through pain at the three- and six-month marks.
When asked about what distance he's kicking from now, Jones said, "I can't give you a great number right now. It's only the second day. We're not attacking it like that yet, so I can't give you a yardage."
I'll be interested to see how this plays out, but I'd still be surprised to see Jones unseat Aaron Boumerhi at this point, unless Boumerhi completely regresses from the form he showed last year. And that's not a shot at Jones, who was obviously very accurate and very efficient before he got hurt at Memphis.
If the coaches do find in camp that one of them is consistently putting the ball into the end zone on kickoffs, then I suppose we could see one as a kickoff specialist and one as the placekicker, but if Jones doesn't win the job, I think he's better off redshirting and using his last season as a graduate transfer somewhere else.
Foley did say that Alex Starzyk is still on the roster, so it sounds like he will return at some point. In the mean time, preferred walk-on Connor Bowler is punting, and Boumerhi and Jones talked about chipping in with those duties as well.
Foley again had high praise for redshirt freshman tight end Kenny Yeboah, and he said he liked what he saw from players like Sean Chandler and Isaiah Wright in the return game.
Some good stuff overall in the audio from the interviews, so it's definitely worth a listen.
Because of the weather, practice got split up and delayed. We were slated to talk to the quarterbacks and specialists, along with Ed Foley and Dave Patenaude. Since we had just talked to Patenaude during Monday's media day and the coaches were running late to a team meeting, we just talked to Foley.
Frank Nutile had a 5:30 class and Todd Centeio, as a true freshman, has not been made available to reporters during preseason camp. I'm noting that because I don't want people to think that Russo and Marchi were put out there to reporters and Nutile and Centeio were not because of any perceived early edge in the quarterback competition. Again, we'll see how that plays out.
So it seems Austin Jones has recovered and progressed from the torn ACL he suffered at Memphis ahead of schedule, and the coaches are indeed calling it an open competition at placekicker. Foley did say last night that "we haven't seen Austin do a lot this year yet." When Jones was asked last night if he has any limitations, he said, "Not really. Just a knee brace." Jones said he had humps to get past in terms of fighting through pain at the three- and six-month marks.
When asked about what distance he's kicking from now, Jones said, "I can't give you a great number right now. It's only the second day. We're not attacking it like that yet, so I can't give you a yardage."
I'll be interested to see how this plays out, but I'd still be surprised to see Jones unseat Aaron Boumerhi at this point, unless Boumerhi completely regresses from the form he showed last year. And that's not a shot at Jones, who was obviously very accurate and very efficient before he got hurt at Memphis.
If the coaches do find in camp that one of them is consistently putting the ball into the end zone on kickoffs, then I suppose we could see one as a kickoff specialist and one as the placekicker, but if Jones doesn't win the job, I think he's better off redshirting and using his last season as a graduate transfer somewhere else.
Foley did say that Alex Starzyk is still on the roster, so it sounds like he will return at some point. In the mean time, preferred walk-on Connor Bowler is punting, and Boumerhi and Jones talked about chipping in with those duties as well.
Foley again had high praise for redshirt freshman tight end Kenny Yeboah, and he said he liked what he saw from players like Sean Chandler and Isaiah Wright in the return game.
Some good stuff overall in the audio from the interviews, so it's definitely worth a listen.
