Aug. 6, 2008
WEST HARRISON, Ind. (12:55 p.m.) - Today, the first of two-a-days, was a good day for UC's offense to gain some confidence. Many of the drills were geared toward second-and-short and third-and-short situations, and the offensive attack found some success there. Which is what BK wanted to see.
"On second and third-and-short, you'd better be able to make some first downs," BK said. "You'd better be above 70 percent efficient. I told our defense that there are going to be some days where the drills are set up for one (unit) to be more successful than the other. Here's your job - stay out of second-and-short and third-and-short."
But during the live drills at the end of practice, the defense was pretty dominant. More often than not, it was breaking up passes and cutting down running backs for little or no gain. Connor Barwin, in particular, had a nice takedown of Marcus Barnett on an attempted end-around
"The best way I would describe them is experienced and really fast," BK said. "We are faster as a unit than we were last year. Now, we have to stay healthy and the right guys have to be on the field."
Other observations from my notebook:
The reason for the trio's absence: UC is being careful with them as they return from their respective surgeries.
"We've decided on two or three players that we're not going to grind them on back-to-back practices," BK said. "Four months post(-surgery) on an Achilles for Daniels, it's impressive that he's even out here. We're not going to push our luck on that one.
"We'll evaluate the decision at the end of the week and see where we are. We want to be careful with them, because for the most part, we've got a good sense and feel for what that rotation is going to be like. A lot of those guys are going to play."
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"He's a cramper," BK said. "He's a rock - he's all muscle on muscle. Obviously, he's losing a lot of water, and those muscles that have no lubrication tend to lock up."
Later on when I was leaving, a trainer told me Goodman was OK.
"That is a battle between Gilyard and (Armon) Binns - a great battle. You saw today a little bit of that competitive spirit with both of those guys. They both want to be in there. One time, one guy was supposed to come out and he wouldn't come out. We like that."
Right now, I'd give the edge to Binns, but we'll see.
"(Pead) has some ability," BK said. "But keeping the perspective, that was against the second group in there. It wasn't the first group. When he starts doing that against the first group, then I'll be excited."
