2014 East-West Shrine Game: Wednesday’s West Team Practice Report
By Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell
The third practice of the West team in the East-West Shrine was held in St. Petersburg, Fla. under cloudy skies with temperatures in the 60s. The players were in full pads and getting physical on day three, although a huge portion of practice was devoted to playbook installation and some situational football drills. There were a lot of complaints being voiced on the sideline from scouts and media about the lack of scrimmaging.
When the scrimmaging started, the West defense, coached by Romeo Crennel, had a good day. In the wide receivers versus cornerback one-on-ones, the defensive backs fared better than other days. The wide receivers have the advantage by being on the same page with the quarterback for the route in this drill. The corners don’t have the help of other defenders, so it was impressive that the defensive backs had a quality performance.
San Jose State cornerback Bene Benwikere out-fought Nebraska wide receiver Quincy Enunwa for an interception. Getting an interception in these one-on-one drills isn’t as common as one would think, and Benwikere had an impressive break on the ball.
Arizona cornerback Shaq Richardson came close to an interception while having tight coverage on Valdosta State wide receiver Seantavius Jones on a go route downfield. Richardson couldn’t track down the pass for a pick, but he ran with Jones and didn’t allow separation.
Arizona State cornerback Alden Darby had a solid practice. He had a pass broken up on a tough hit while covering Pitt State wide receiver John Brown. Brown had a nice practice on Tuesday, but didn’t look as good Wednesday. Darby had another PBU when he drove hard on Jones coming back to the quarterback on a dig route. Jones slipped and Darby pounded the ball into the turf. Darby had some nice plays in run defense flying into the box to limit gains during the team scrimmage portion. The gritty Darby helped himself on Wednesday.
San Jose State wide receiver Chandler Jones had some nice moments. He burned Oregon State cornerback Rashaad Reynolds on an out-and-up for a long completion. Jones also toasted BYU safety Daniel Sorenson on a cut in the middle of the field to get wide open. Sorenson has had some struggles in coverage this week. Jones made a sliding catch on a low pass from Tommy Rees during the team scrimmage as well. Jones (5-11, 175) helped his cause on Wednesday.
The defense continued to impress in the run scrimmage. USC linebacker Devon Kennard got it started by flying around the corner to blast Texas A&M running back Ben Malena in the backfield. Wisconsin tackle Beau Allen and Colorado State’s Shaquil Barrett both got off blocks to stuff a run for no gain. Barrett had a solid practice filling lanes.
No one player dominated in the one-on-ones between the lineman. Some defenders would beat the block on one play before getting stuffed in the rematch or vice versa. For some reason, Virginia Tech defensive tackle Derrick Hopkins received a lot of reps. Hopkins beat Wisconsin guard Ryan Groy and Furman guard Dakota Dozier with speed rushes to the outside. However, both Groy and Dozier stopped cold some bull rushes. Hopkins clearly needs to gain weight and strength for the NFL, but he has some speed and natural pad level as pluses to work with.
Fresno State guard Austin Wentworth stood up two rushes from Manitoba (Canada) defensive lineman Evan Gill. Colorado defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe and Nebraska offensive tackle Jeremiah Sirles split some reps. Uzo-Diribe won on a speed rush while Sirles was ready for it the second time and pushed Uzo-Diribe around the pocket. Sirles has ability but needs some development on the practice field and in the weight room. Uzo-Diribe could be a backup situational rusher.
UCLA defensive end Cassius Marsh beat Montana’s Danny Kistler with a speed rush, but Kistler was able to block off another attempt. Stanford defensive end Joah Mauro had a nice win over Georgia’s Chris Burnette with some strength and speed. During the bag drills, Marsh and Mauro were the most impressive ends as Marsh showed nice speed while Mauro had good strength.
Oklahoma center Ben Ikard had a nice play where he buried Beau Allen into the turf after pushing Allen to a knee.
Two linebackers stood out on Wednesday. South Dakota’s Tyler Starr dropped an interception after he made a nice break on the ball to undercut a route. It was an easy catch in what could have been an impressive play from Starr. A few plays later, Starr redeemed himself with a pick. Washington quarterback Keith Price was pressured out of the pocket. Instead of running with the ball, Price tried to fire a fastball to a receiver along the sideline. Starr dived to snatch the pass in front of the receiver, which got the entire defense fired up.
Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough had his best practice of the week. He filled some lanes well to be in position to make tackles in the run scrimmage. He then had probably the best play of the entire practice in the team scrimmage. Bullough dropped into pass coverage backpedaling toward the sideline from the middle of the field. Bullough got good depth in his drop and was able to make a leaping interception on a pass from Ball State’s Keith Wenning. It was a very impressive play from Bullough that flashed some pass coverage ability in what has been a weakness in his game.
Washington’s Price and Notre Dame’s Rees have Canadian football written all over them. Both are short on physical tools to be an NFL starter, and they could be considered to be more on display for the Canadian scouts in attendance rather than NFL evaluators. Over the course of NFL history, plenty of great players have overcome those issues, but the majority don’t. Price and Rees could have careers in Canada if they can’t make an NFL roster as third-stringers. The strong-armed Wenning could also play in Canada if he can’t stick in the NFL. Wenning was the most impressive quarterback on the West squad this week.
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