Scout's Eye with some thoughts from first Minicamp practice:
- The one receiver that jumped out at me when watching practice was Devin Street. There is a real smoothness to his game and you can see that with his ability to run routes. He was one of those kids during the drafting process that really stood out when it came to where he was willing to take his route and the ability to finish them. Two of his better plays were routes that were run inside. One came on a slant against, Terrance Mitchell, who was in good position to make the play but Street was able to position himself in a way to snatch the ball. His other nice play, was a drag across the middle on boot action to the right. It was a solid throw by Dustin Vaughan on the move for a nice gain. Street also lined up some snaps inside as the slot as well. It was a nice start to his morning.
- A running back that showed some nice quickness and hands in the Team Run and the 7-on-7 drills was, Ben Malena out of Texas A&M. This player has some juice in the way he plays. You could see it on tape but in person, he shows it as well. He puts a lot of pressure on the linebacker to have to match his quickness in coverage but also to have to stop him before he gets going with the ball in his hands like he did in the run period. Malena has the ability to make people miss in space which is a great trait for a running back.
- Have to say that did not see the physical side of cornerback, Terrance Mitchell on tape but there were several snaps that when they went to a single high look and he had to press the receiver off the snap, he did an outstanding job of using his hands and positioning to deny the receiver space in route. There was one snap where he completely eliminated L'Damian Washington by shoving him off the field with his jam. Mitchell during the practice played on both the right and left sides.
- There is no question that quarterback Dustin Vaughan can make all the throws, but this morning, there was no question that he was a little nervous in how he handled the 7-on-7 period. There were two separate plays where he had the chance to hit a couple of easy slants and the ball just sailed on him badly. It would have been nice to see him hit those throws but he came back later in Team and hit a nice pass to Street on the boot. [embedded_ad]
- The starting lineup for the offensive line in this rookie camp was Josh Aladenoye at left tackle, Andre' Cureton at left guard, Ronald Patrick at center, Zack Martin at right guard and Jarrod Pughsley at the right tackle.
- Along the defensive line, Ben Gardner lined up as the left end, Davon Coleman played the three technique, Ken Bishop was the one and Dartwan Bush as the right end. I thought it was an outstanding practice for the PAC 12 guys, Gardner and Coleman. Both were very quick off the ball and had some nice battles with Martin and Pughsley on the right side. There was one rep where it looked like Coleman had beaten Martin up the field, getting him to lunge but Martin was able to recover and get himself back in position on the block.
