Davis is as talented at throwing the football as anybody I have seen at Stanford. The 7v7 session wasn't fair. He puts the ball in the right spot, with the right pace, throw after throw. And he's decisive.
The obvious question that remains to be answered is movement. He looked fine rolling out. But can he extend plays to throw downfield or run the ball on designed or pass pro breakdowns? Hell, is he able to even manipulate the pocket when necessary? Being able to create outside of the play call is such a major part of playing QB in college football. The injury history here is what clouds the expectations. We shall see... But at the floor, this is Josh Rosen without the baggage.
If it wasn't for Mills, and a flash here and there from Peat, practice would have been even more painful to watch. No juice, no tempo, no play clock. Run a ball carrier into the middle. The next play, one minute later, there's a penalty or another run up the middle. Really awful from a management perspective.
Then there are all of the guys not practicing -
Antoine
Costello
IBS
Stewart
Butler
St Brown
Bonner
Herron
Speights
Woods
Maddox
Miezan
DWP
Stratford DOA
Bragg
Pease
Hattis
and,of course, Peek
This has been a disappointing trend. Start totaling up all this missed practice time, including the spring and summer, over the last 3 seasons and it's going to have an adverse effect. You just can not cheat field practice time for this long.
Disclaimer
I couldn't keep my eyes off Mills. Typically, I don't watch the ball much at all during a practice, which affords me the opportunity to see other things. So there's that. I also spent the vast majority of this practice talking to the parents of one of the players.
QB
Outside of Mills, KJ did not throw. He was in full pads. Clearly there is an arm soreness/fatigue issue there. West looks serviceable. He also looks like a guy we need to recruit over. But he won't be seeing the field any time soon unless disaster strikes.
RB
Peat was fun to watch. Not sure if there is a role there. Hard to see Jones having any role- Although I say this without seeing KOR. Scarlett will be RB1 and Speights will have a large role. Maddox kind of grew on me a little last year as a serviceable piece.
FB
No reason to have one on the field.
WR
Good looking, solid group. And they are young. Nothing spectacular. Spread these guys out and hit them on the move and it could/should be a lot of fun. Higgins looks interesting but not sure what he could bring differently/better to the table.
TE
Hard to imagine too many TE's across the US better that Park. Going to have a huge year. I love Fisk. Really one of the best football players on the roster outside of our elite guys. Would be an ideal two-way player for 30-40 snaps/game. Fullback, TE, OL, DL. Stud.
OL
Barrett Miller was playing next to Walker with the 1's at times. But he's not ready. Rouse was another frosh to get reps in the scrimmage. He has a bit of a way to go physically. Nugent was snapping with the 2's. Going to need some time.
Outside of the starting 5, Hattis is OL6 and then true frosh. Dear God.
And it's not like the starters don't have anything to prove, outside of Walker, who is a true star in college football.
Some defensive/ST randoms
The obvious question that remains to be answered is movement. He looked fine rolling out. But can he extend plays to throw downfield or run the ball on designed or pass pro breakdowns? Hell, is he able to even manipulate the pocket when necessary? Being able to create outside of the play call is such a major part of playing QB in college football. The injury history here is what clouds the expectations. We shall see... But at the floor, this is Josh Rosen without the baggage.
If it wasn't for Mills, and a flash here and there from Peat, practice would have been even more painful to watch. No juice, no tempo, no play clock. Run a ball carrier into the middle. The next play, one minute later, there's a penalty or another run up the middle. Really awful from a management perspective.
Then there are all of the guys not practicing -
Antoine
Costello
IBS
Stewart
Butler
St Brown
Bonner
Herron
Speights
Woods
Maddox
Miezan
DWP
Stratford DOA
Bragg
Pease
Hattis
and,of course, Peek
This has been a disappointing trend. Start totaling up all this missed practice time, including the spring and summer, over the last 3 seasons and it's going to have an adverse effect. You just can not cheat field practice time for this long.
Disclaimer
I couldn't keep my eyes off Mills. Typically, I don't watch the ball much at all during a practice, which affords me the opportunity to see other things. So there's that. I also spent the vast majority of this practice talking to the parents of one of the players.
QB
Outside of Mills, KJ did not throw. He was in full pads. Clearly there is an arm soreness/fatigue issue there. West looks serviceable. He also looks like a guy we need to recruit over. But he won't be seeing the field any time soon unless disaster strikes.
RB
Peat was fun to watch. Not sure if there is a role there. Hard to see Jones having any role- Although I say this without seeing KOR. Scarlett will be RB1 and Speights will have a large role. Maddox kind of grew on me a little last year as a serviceable piece.
FB
No reason to have one on the field.
WR
Good looking, solid group. And they are young. Nothing spectacular. Spread these guys out and hit them on the move and it could/should be a lot of fun. Higgins looks interesting but not sure what he could bring differently/better to the table.
TE
Hard to imagine too many TE's across the US better that Park. Going to have a huge year. I love Fisk. Really one of the best football players on the roster outside of our elite guys. Would be an ideal two-way player for 30-40 snaps/game. Fullback, TE, OL, DL. Stud.
OL
Barrett Miller was playing next to Walker with the 1's at times. But he's not ready. Rouse was another frosh to get reps in the scrimmage. He has a bit of a way to go physically. Nugent was snapping with the 2's. Going to need some time.
Outside of the starting 5, Hattis is OL6 and then true frosh. Dear God.
And it's not like the starters don't have anything to prove, outside of Walker, who is a true star in college football.
Some defensive/ST randoms
- Thomas Booker looks fantastic. Great job with his body in the *offseason.
- I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's not hard to play ILB v our offense in practice. Maybe that's why it was so hard for Hansen to choose between 6 guys at the position 2 years ago. And maybe that's why it looked like Joey could play there. CRob and JM-F sure look the part but I dunno. Was looking forward to see Meizan.
- Two walk-ons starting at the S positions
- A lot of frosh DB's getting significant reps - Kelly, Turner-Muhammad, Manley, McGill - Neither of whom look all that physically ready, but there could be some shirt burning here. I'm not sold on Eboh.
- Wedington, Wilson and Adebo were returning punts. Adebo tracks the ball beautifully, but it's hard to justify putting him back there.
- Alomar runs a very efficient ST session usually 2x/practice.
