Day 5: A Good Day was had by the defense

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

he temperature gauge read about 75 degrees with plenty of sunshine Wednesday, great weather for football practice. The Florida Gators got after it a bit on Wednesday and produced some exciting moments as well as some changes in the way things have been going so far this spring. Here is a close play-by play of the action and then a report on the defense following today's action.

Here is my best rendition of what happened at practice by each segment of practice.

Goal line running drill (on opposite field): These were three-back sets with two of the running backs and a fullback. Here is what I saw…

Play 1: Brandon James takes the ball off of the right side for a short touchdown.
Play 2: Emmanuel Moody gets stuffed at the line on the second play.
Play 3: Kestahn Moore gets stopped inches short on third and threeish.
Play 4: Kestahn Moore runs out of a triple I set for a TD.

Second Team

Play 5: Brandon James stopped short.
Play 6: Mon Williams stopped short.
Play 7: Another stop short, couldn’t tell who the back was.
Play 8: Brandon James bounces it outside twice and gets into the end zone.

First Team
Play 9: Moody bounces outside left for a touchdown.
Play 10: Brandon Spikes pops into the backfield and Kestahn Moore loses a lot of yardage.
Play 11: Moody, nice hard earned touchdown run off of the left guard.

They immediately broke into the field goal portion of practice where Caleb Sturgis kept kicking and kicking FGs. Finally from 57 yards out and a defense in pursuit he went two for four with room to spare on most of them.

After a break to do some individual action, the skill guys on both sides of the ball met at the middle of the close practice field and squared off in the 15-yard tackling drill. The offensive skill player gets the ball 15 yards away from the defender and has about a five-yard path in which to stay in the lines. He has to make it with the ball the fifteen yards and stay inside the cones. Here is what I saw…

Chris Rainey made Lorenzo Edwards grab air ... Carl Moore bounced right off of some defender and went for the 15 ... Wondy Pierre-Louis got a hold of Deonte Thompson ... Brandon Hicks drove Brandon James out of bounds ... Justin Williams tackled by Moses Jenkins ... Brandon James makes Dustin Doe miss ... Mon Williams gets by Lorenzo Edwards ... Rainey gets by Brendan Beal ... David Nelson dragged down by John Curtis ... Jeremy Brown makes a nice tackle on Deonte Thompson ... Lorenzo Edwards lays out Mon Williams ... Kestahn Moore drug Brendan Beal for three yards and a score ... Rainey gets by Edwards ... Mon Williams trucked Hicks and scored ... Nelson by Hornsby for a score ... Brandon James by Dustin Doe for a score ... Moody got clobbered by Hicks ... Beal whiffs on Moody ... Doe tackles Mon Williams … Carl Moore puts a spin move on Janoris Jenkins and scores ... Lorenzo Edwards picks up Rainey and tosses him ... Justin Williams makes Jeremy Brown whiff ... Lorenzo Edwards gets Mon Williams ... David Nelson gets by Moses Jenkins ... Doe tackles Moody ... Hicks gets nothing but air as Rainey scoots 15 yards for the score ... Edwards gets Mon rather easily.

Running Game (9 on 7): I went to video for this one which plays the front seven plus a safety and the running portion of the offense. The offense pretty much dominated this portion of practice again. One notable was the insertion of Phil Trautwein during this portion of full contact drills.

This portion was caught on camera and we will show the entire segment minus a couple of plays. If there was a plus on defense during this portion it was starting middle linebacker Brandon Spikes who is a presence every time he is on the field. He made his presence known on the first play tackling Kestahn Moore well behind the line of scrimmage. Chris Rainey and Cam Newton were the offensive stars during this period and the offense controlled it for the most part.

Seven-on-Seven Passing Drills:

Major Wright was not out there today, so John Curtis got the starting nod at safety in his absence. A.J. Jones was in on this drill starting at strong side linebacker. The offense was successful completing the short routes, but when they started to go long they ran into the same issues as Monday. The defensive secondary was all over them.

Markihe Anderson had an interception of Cam Newton early in this segment of practice ... Bryan Thomas had a breakup of a medium range out pass on a zone blitz play ... Hornsby makes a quick tackle Hernandez near the line of scrimmage ... John Brantley made a very nice roll out deep corner or wheel route pass to Brandon James on the fly ... Carl Moore turned in a couple of nice catches in coverage ... Wondy Pierre-Louis broke up a pass to Carl Moore ... Wondy breaks up another pass, this time to Justin Williams ... Newton throws a bullet deep in the end zone to what looked to be a wide open Cade Holliday, but Brandon Spikes dropped quickly in his zone coverage and broke up the pass ... John Curtis was right there on a corner pattern pass to Riley Cooper and he forced Cooper to catch the ball out of bounds ... Janoris Jenkins breaks up a Newton pass in the middle of the field ... Markihe breaks up a pass to Brandon James and then taunts him afterwards ... Tebow was back as quarterback and Louis Murphy catches a deep crossing pattern in the back of the end zone ahead of John Curtis ... Joe Haden picked off an ill-advised Tebow pass after the play was broken down ... Tebow finished his time in the segment off with a nice touchdown pass to Louis Murphy in the end zone ... Newton throws a crossing pattern to Brandon James who was crossing opposite of everyone else and he beat A.J. Jones around the end for a touchdown ... Jeremy Brown made a nice diving tip of the ball of a Cam Newton pass in the middle of the field ... Brantley throws a mid-range out pass to Justin Williams who makes a very nice one handed grab near the sideline ... the next pass Brantley again to Williams except Haden was there to cause a dropped ball ... Jacques Rickerson breaks up a Brantley post pass in the back of the end zone ... Wondy intercepts a Brantley pass in the end zone ... Kestahn Moore makes a short catch and a defender whiffed for a touchdown ... Bryan Thomas almost had a Tebow interception in front of Cornelius Ingram ... Tebow threaded the needle for Murphy in the back of the end zone…

Eleven on Eleven (with scoring): This was plainly the entire offense vs. the entire defense.

As you will see the defense continued it’s bright play from the previous two drills and really made life miserable for the offense and especially the quarterbacks and receivers.

Tebow runs the first play for positive yardage ... Bad snap on offense ... Wondy batted down a Tebow pass ... Shovel pass to Kestahn Moore for a yard (defense score) ... Carlos Dunlap in the backfield for a sack ... Deonte Thompson drops a Tebow fastball ... Lorenzo Edwards busts through the line of scrimmage to get Rainey behind the line of scrimmage ... Torrey Davis blows up the line for a tackle of no gain ... Newton completes a nice 12-yard out pass to Carl Moore in front of Moses Jenkins ... Rainey runs option pitch around the right side and looked like the fastest guy on the field going the distance ... Cunningham and Trattou combine for a sack of Tebow. Offensive coordinator Dan Mullen was vocally upset about his pass protection ... Wondy picked off Tebow deep ... Spikes knocked Jim Tartt back three yards and blew up one play ... Wondy with another pass break up of a Tebow pass ... Ahmad black playing with the first team defense and makes the tackle on Brandon James on a short pass at the line of scrimmage and follows that up with a pass break up of a long pass to Cornelius Ingram ... Marsh and Okine combine to tackle Cam Newton behind the line of scrimmage on a quarterback keeper run ... Munroe and Haden break up a deep pass to Ingram from Tebow ... Kestahn Moore gains about 12 yards on an option pitch from Tebow around the right side ... Ahmad Black helps stop a medium length pass in the middle of the field with a hard hit ... Newton bad pitch to Moody and Brendan Beal pounces on it for the defense ... Troy Epps and Dustin Doe all over Cam Newton in the backfield on an option keeper.

Defense --- What I liked and didn’t like:

Defensive Line:
First Team --- DE Justin Trattou, DT Troy Epps, DT Lawrence Marsh, DE Jermaine Cunningham
Second Team --- DE Carlos Dunlap, DT John Brown, DT Torrey Davis, DE Duke Lemmens
Third Team --- DE Jaye Howard, DT Terron Sanders, DE Matt Patchan

What I Liked: They got better as the day wore on. I think the depth on the defensive line may actually be taking a toll on the offensive linemen during the day and they shuffled in guys liberally as Davis and Brown were sometimes with the first team ends and vice versa. Epps continues to be the best DT in my opinion, although Davis and Brown both made a few plays and broke down the pocket a few times. I really think the interior push got better today.

The ends played really well and Dunlap seemed everywhere when he was on the field. Trattou wasn’t far behind and his name was called out a few times today. Matt Patchan got some play and was in contact at defensive end.

I think this front seven as a whole really plays well wide because of all the speed they possess.

What I Didn’t Like: They got pushed around again early on when everyone and their neighbor knew that the offense was going to run the ball. When push comes to shove on the interior the defensive line lost the battles. They just have to get tougher when someone comes to shove it down their throats.

Linebackers:
First team --- Dustin Doe, Brandon Spikes, Brandon Hicks
Backups --- Lorenzo Edwards, Brendan Beal, John Jones, Jerimy Finch, Chris Pintado

What I Liked: Spikes is absolutely the man on defense. He creates such havoc in different ways. Coming out of high school I would have never thought he would be so good at breaking up passes and pass coverage, but he is good at everything. I think the second biggest playmaker at linebacker is Lorenzo Edwards, who continues to shine. He got beat twice in a row to start off the 15-yard tackle drill, and then he dominated everyone he faced after that. Hicks is growing up in the starting role vacated most of the time by A.J. Jones while his hand is healing. I thought Brendan Beal made an impression today as well.

Like the defensive line, when the ball goes wide, this group is usually all over the ball. They run sideline to sideline as well as any group we have had in my opinion.

What I Didn’t Like: Stamper and A.J. Jones were in yellow jerseys again and missed most of the live action. That early running game drill was just brutal on the front seven and it all can’t be pinned on the line. Side to side these guys are terrors with their speed, but I am not sure if it is assignments or what, but they get lost in the shuffle on inside runs a lot.

Secondary:
First team --- CB Wondy Pierre-Louis, S John Curtis, S Dorian Munroe, CB Joe Haden
Second Team --- CB Jacques Rickerson, S Ahmad Black (moved to first by end of practice), S Jamar Hornsby, CB Markihe Anderson
Third Team --- CB Jeremy Brown, CB Moses Jenkins, S Bryan Thomas, CB Janoris Jenkins

What I Liked: This was the best day out of the safeties that I can remember since a certain eraser was wandering the field. They made more pass breakups and tackles close to the line of scrimmage than they have in two years and that was great to see. I saw plays by Thomas, Hornsby, Curtis, and Munroe. But, for the third time this week, sophomore Ahmad Black made several great plays and was awarded with playing with the first unit near the end of practice. So far Black looks like the hardest hitter in the group and he is by far the smallest of the group. He also jumps passes and plays smart.

The corners continue to shine and there were several interceptions today. Joe Haden had another, Wondy had two, Rickerson had one and I believe Markihe Anderson had one. Janoris Jenkins, Moses Jenkins, and Jeremy Brown all had nice pass break ups.

The secondary as a whole is making life miserable for the quarterbacks and receivers at practice.

What I Didn’t Like: No Major Wright as he was battling the flu. You could pick a play here or there, but honestly the secondary was on fire today in my opinion.

Player of the Day on Defense: I am going to go with Brandon Spikes. There is just a huge difference with the whole defense when he is on the team and he showed his versatility playing up and then tackling behind the line of scrimmage or playing deep in coverage.

Runner Up: Wondy had two interceptions and played very well today throughout the practice.