Updates from Gag's

Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:42 pm

Gag's updated his blog about today's practice, the first one in full pads. Highlights include:

- Defense won the practice by 2.5 points. I think the best thing we can hope for when we are playing ourselves is to see an even match between both sides of the ball. It will be interesting to see if things stay close as fall camp progresses.

- Alexander, "Kongo", and James Davis have all been rotating within the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd team offenses. It sounds like Davis has had an impressive camp so far and may be in the RB rotation when the season rolls around.

- Stover and Patrick Mertens have been working with the #1 defense at DT. Purcell came in for Stover when he got hurt (see later point). Taufa'asau is working with the 2nd team defense at DT. I have a feeling Taufa'asau will work his way into rotating with the ones as fall camp progresses.

- It appears that JC WR Jonathan Aiken has walked-on to the team. If you guys remember, he was "mistakenly" listed as verballing to UW during this last recruiting class by rivals.com. From what I understood, he had been offered by UW, but JC WR's Ogbonna and Lester were the #1 target for us, and once they verballed to us, Aiken's scholarship offer was pulled. I believe Aiken also had a offer from Akron, but it appears he chose to walk on with UW instead. I had no idea about this, but I am EXTREMELY excited to hear this. I watched film on a lot of these guys last year while they were being recruited and I firmly believe that Aiken is a better WR than Lester is. Gag's seemed to think he was pretty impressive as well, and mentioned that he had the "play of the day".

- UW has also added another freshman WR from California. Supposedly a guy with a lot of speed. I'm not sure if this was done because two of the recruits never made it to camp or what. Gag's said he will have a story on the guy in tomorrows newspaper.

- There were some injuries during today's practice. WR's Burkhalter and Lester were injured. It was unclear how severe their injuries were. DT Stover was also injured but told Gag's he was OK at the end of practice. Stover seems to have a real big problem staying healthy, so it's crucial we develop depth at DT.

http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/

Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:02 pm

I'm really happy to see Aiken on the team. I remember seeing him listed as a commit and at 6'4", he's another WR that we really need. Most of ours are pretty short except for Leonard and he's probably faster than Leonard. I'm curious about the Cali WR walk-on. Getting some walk-ons to contribute is basically a steal. Especially if they are a 6'4" WR. Man I hope he keeps it up. I love hearing good news.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:16 pm

Aiken is not only 6'4...he also supposedly runs a 4.4 forty.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:37 pm

I did a search of kids we recruited from California and one comes up without a committed school, but he had an offer and visit to Wyoming. Anthony Amos. But he was from city college of San Francisco so I guess that wouldn't make him a freshman. Is he the possible walk-on? There wasn't any others from Cali that didn't have commits to schools.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:57 pm

This guy maybe?

http://wyoming.scout.com/a.z?s=367&p=8&c=1&nid=4160909

Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:23 pm

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.

Yeah, I've done things like that before in my martial arts class. The people on the recieving end weren't exactly thrilled either. Especially the guy I power bombed...

Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:24 pm

What ever happened w/ James Caraway? He was supposed to be a pretty highly touted recruit..

Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:27 pm

MrTitleist wrote:What ever happened w/ James Caraway? He was supposed to be a pretty highly touted recruit..

I think he is a backup cb. He is still on the team though, and was a big Special Teams contributor last year.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 5:18 pm

JimmyDimes wrote:
MrTitleist wrote:What ever happened w/ James Caraway? He was supposed to be a pretty highly touted recruit..
I think he is a backup cb. He is still on the team though, and was a big Special Teams contributor last year.

Right now he's listed at second on the depth chart. He's doing well at db.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 5:37 pm

Was he recruited as a WR at first or am I crazy?

Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:30 pm

Looks like the late WR addition is Robert Herron from Dorsey High in Los Angeles. Big track guy... personal records of 10.50 in the 100m and 20.99 in 200m.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VAQ-Bv6858

Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:46 pm

Mayday wrote:Looks like the late WR addition is Robert Herron from Dorsey High in Los Angeles. Big track guy... personal records of 10.50 in the 100m and 20.99 in 200m.

Pretty impressive video. It doesn't look like this guy was recruited heavily at all. It's not uncommon to find gems in states that produce a whole bunch of D1 players, such as California. They tend to get overlooked in the sea of talented players. He looks like a good get.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:52 pm

They were talking that he was a walk-on, but i'm happy that he's on scholarship. He looked really good in the video! Wow things have started to look real good for the WR's! I just haven't heard enough good news about the two JC's to give me confidence in the change to our corp. I hear some about Mazi, but not as much about Jayde. These two new additions have gotten me real excited! It would be interesting to see if Aiken gets rewarded a scholarship since we had two that didn't pan out.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:55 pm

Looks speedy! I like the way he runs North/South with just subtle moves. You are saying that he is in camp right now? A walk on or a late recruit?
I'm getting the feeling that this may be a special year for Cowboy football!

Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:30 pm

They signed Herron to a scholarship, so i guess that makes him a recruit. Weird that they didn't mention it at all until Gag noticed him. Maybe he wasn't there for summer workouts and they called him up after they learned about the two ineligible guys. It would be nice to have a dedicated KR guy that wasn't a staple of your WR corp or one of your top two CB's. Man he looks fast! What a pleasant start to fall practice! We learn the german wrecking ball is closer to what we thought than not. Then we get two decent sounding freshman receivers that we didn't know were even there. Kongo sounds like he's going to be a good back to go with AA. And they are all underclassmen to boot!

I don't know if it is Cowboy withdrawals or what, but man I feel excited about our team! I know that every team probably feels the same way, but it's nice to have a few things to feel good about.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:42 pm

laxwyo wrote:They signed Herron to a scholarship, so i guess that makes him a recruit. Weird that they didn't mention it at all until Gag noticed him. Maybe he wasn't there for summer workouts and they called him up after they learned about the two ineligible guys. It would be nice to have a dedicated KR guy that wasn't a staple of your WR corp or one of your top two CB's. Man he looks fast! What a pleasant start to fall practice! We learn the german wrecking ball is closer to what we thought than not. Then we get two decent sounding freshman receivers that we didn't know were even there. Kongo sounds like he's going to be a good back to go with AA. And they are all underclassmen to boot!

I don't know if it is Cowboy withdrawals or what, but man I feel excited about our team! I know that every team probably feels the same way, but it's nice to have a few things to feel good about.

I feel exactly the same way. Every time you think DC can't surprise you again, you find out good news.

The last two days we just discovered that we have:

1. A deep kicker and a better cover team with 11 men in coverage.
2. A three star rivals recruit that is 6'4" and has above average speed.
3. An absolute track star, possible kick returner, and big play guy in Robert Herron.

It's hard to analyze all of the ramifications of that, but a couple pop straight to mind.

What about a big receiver line-up of Leonard, Aiken, Tooley, and TJ Smith(whom Cowboy fans will love)?
All those guys are 6'4", athletic, and faster than most linebackers.

Think of the crack-back possibilities with Aiken. If you watch his youtube video, he demolishes a guy on a scramble drill. ACS scrambles a lot. He's going to have a lot of opportunities to hammer on some db's with their eyes glued to the qb.

How much of the playbook comes into play when you have two wide receivers with legitimate deep speed? The field of play just got a lot bigger.

What a good way to start out camp.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:05 pm

If you're wondering, Robert Herron is from Dorsey High in Crenshaw, California. When he runs by those guys in that video, those guys are fast too. It's right in the heart of L.A. and he's blowing by people like they have ankle weights on.

Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:10 pm

Cowboy Junky wrote:If you're wondering, Robert Herron is from Dorsey High in Crenshaw, California. When he runs by those guys in that video, those guys are fast too. It's right in the heart of L.A. and he's blowing by people like they have ankle weights on.

Thats not too far from where I work. FWIW On Wiki it says Dorsey High has produced the 2nd highest amount of NFL players in the entire US. Lets hope for the best for this guy. Hopefully he can make a smooth transition to life in Laramie.

Tue Aug 10, 2010 12:32 am

Aiken's profile...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/sectionsports/f ... iken-98850

Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:05 am

Herron looks incredibly fast! Even if his hands aren't great (which I'm not saying they aren't) he looks like he can contribute right away on reverses and punt/kick returns. It would be nice to have someone returning kicks who can outrun people. Leonard does a good job returning punts, but he's not out-running too many people on the kick coverage teams.

If he can adapt from LA to Laramie, I think he has a pretty bright future in the Brown and Gold.

I'm worried about the gauntlet we have to run to start the year, but it sounds like Christensen's "100ish" rated recruiting class is starting to look pretty good. I can't wait to see some of these receivers and Schober. Running back depth is looking good, receivers are coming together, of course there is ACS, and the D should be stout - might be an interesting season.