Speaking of Clemson:
"I had more faith there than anywhere else and it felt like home for me. The facilities are great and it's hard to explain just how much I liked it there."
Although Alabama had him pegged as OLB, he has been recruited by Billy Napier to play H-back/TE for us, giving us 2 TEs in the class. Napier's dad is Beasley's HS Offensive coordinator.
Practice Report-
-The SID tells us that Kourtnei Brown, who was rated the last DE on the chart after this Spring, has been slated for a RS season. Recently Chris Rumph was praising him, saying he had really come on strong and had a chance to be a great player, so I suppose with the depth at DE this was a reasonable choice. It just seems like they should've RS'd him sooner than now. He is a Jr this year, so he'll sit out and play 2 more.
Swinney also announced after practice that he hopes to red-shirt defensive end Kourtnei Brown this season. Brown is a junior from Charlotte, NC. He has played 24 games and 404 plays at defensive end over the last two years and has 33 career tackles.
"We are going to try to red-shirt Kourtnei Brown if we can this year. If there is an injury that could certainly change.
"Kourtnei has a chance to be a great player and we would like to have him for two more years (after this year) instead of just one."
-Chad Diehl, who played LB at Byrnes before being switched to Fullback at CU, has been getting some reps back at LB again in goal line defense.
"We experimented with that some in the spring and we tried it today. Chad is a train wreck waiting to happen. He gives us some size in there in that short yardage situation."
-JK Jay's back surgery went well, and he will take his Medical.
-Some newspapers are trying to say that the idea of Alexander to OLB has been shelved, but direct comments from Steele say it has not. What the writers are reporting is that they've never seen him standing up, but thats because the portion of the package has not yet been installed. Going by Saban's defensive playbook, which should be similar or identical to Steele's, each day of practice is used to install a new defensive front, or coverage, or blitz package....thats A LOT to cover in a month and they may only get one extra day to really practice it before the season starts.
-An article about Scotty Cooper and a recent trip to Africa, who is now unchallenged for the SAM LB spot with Hunter gone.
-Richard Jackson, who was so highly rated out of HS, has done the best of the kickers so far, and seeks to lock down the starting job.
I'm psyched to have this guy and beat Alabama for him.
ReplyDeleteI think Victor Beasley is going to be a good one, and hope they will let him play on the defensive side of the ball. Let's add Parker to the list, and I will be happy with this year's LB class.
ReplyDeleteI agree that they should have redshirted Brown his first year because he was obviously not ready to play, but I am sure they made him a promise that he would not redshirt, so in that situation, I don't think they had much of a choice. I guess he finally realized this would be the best move for him in the long term.
Please live up to your potential Richard Jackson.
The redshirt of Brown was a little surprising (rarely see players redshirt after their freshman year) but a great move for the program, as we are obviously stacked at the DE position this year and will lose both Alexander and Sapp following the season.
ReplyDeleteChad Diehl is a strong cat who plays particularly hardnosed football...something that the thin linebacker corps could always use is another productive body, so I will be particularly interested to see how this one plays out.
Jackson came to Clemson and folks thought he would be the next Igwebuike. Well that has definitely not been the case. We all hope that he will turn his college career around (by the way, how in the hell a football payer--with all the resources provided--becomes academically ineligable perplexes me). I would like to see a 60+ yard field goal in Death Valley.
Recruiting looks great so far and we are in the same position as we were this time last year. Winning a few games this season should assure we keep these players and pull a few more. Also, we have only around a half dozen schollies not committed (all target #'s I have seen is a class of around 22) meaning the staff can now focus solely on quality and not just getting bodies into school.
In an article this afternoon, Swinney comments that Brown's RS was removed in 2007 and should not have been, and he thinks Brown agrees with that. Similar situation with Rennie Moore.
ReplyDeleteIt also suggests that Brown himself brought it up with the staff. He's listed 3rd team behind Sapp and Alexander at Weakside.
Next year he'll be fighting Goodman for the weakside job.