First Football Practice Reports Trickle In 8/5 (Updated 8/6)

'06 Football General14

An article full of nothing useful at gopack.com. Can we have Annabelle back? Here are the highlights:

With the offense in red, the defense in white and the quarterbacks in dressed in black, the team began to flex while John Deraney and the other kickers punted to Darrell Blackman and a few others. Deraney in particular boomed a few punts over the head of Blackman (SFN: WOW. OUR PUNTER KICKED THE BALL REALLY FAR. WOO HOO. GREAT SCOOP) in an impressive display that cornerbacks coach Greg Williams was in awe of. I was taking picture of Blackman fielding punts and I was constantly scampering out of the way so I didn’t get hit when he turned to run after the ball.

Blackman continued to shine during the 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills, making a few nice catches in his fall debut at wide receiver and he also gained a chunk of yardage on an end around by beating a unnamed safety to the corner and turning up field.

James Henderson has a good report on the Pack Pride premium board. It doesn’t seem like ANYONE reads the Wolfpacker anymore, we didn’t see a practice report on their site.

Updated on Sunday, August 6

* Wilmington Star-News discusses State and Carolina’s first practices.

* In light of this previous conversation at SFN, the following quote from the Wilmington report scares the dickens out of us:

“There were way too many dropped passes. The quarterbacks, including second-teamer Daniel Evans along with Stone and Burke, had a lot of well-place balls end up on the ground.

* Greensboro’s News & Record ran an informative piece that focused on roster news and on the important return of defensive end, Raymond Brooks.

* 100 Pictures of the Pack’s first practice can be found here.

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'06 Football General

14 Responses to First Football Practice Reports Trickle In 8/5 (Updated 8/6)

  1. CarnifeX 08/05/2006 at 4:12 PM #

    Deraney, The Wolfpack’s Triple Threat. Hot damn.

  2. Cardiff Giant 08/05/2006 at 11:28 PM #

    Anabelle must be busy, I suppose.

  3. Cardiff Giant 08/05/2006 at 11:31 PM #

    An actual quotation:

    “They [sic] players learned quickly about some of rules they’ll have to abide by, like how to groom their facial hair. The guys can only have tightly groomed mustaches, no sideburns nor beards of any kinds. Keeping a beard trimmer on hand during photo days is always part of my job.”

    You know, in my day they just said, “no facial hair,” and we were left to deal with that. And we were in high school. One wonders why college players would need to learn “rules” on this. What next – wash your hands and wash your feet; look twice when you cross the street? Listen to Woodsy Owl? What the hell?

  4. old13 08/05/2006 at 11:40 PM #

    I personally prefer The Wolfpacker to the gastapo tactics at PackPride. PP seems to have its own agenda and will not allow any comments to the contrary.

  5. bTHEredterror 08/06/2006 at 2:39 AM #

    Did you catch Chuck saying Darby won’t be back? A thin position grows thinner.

  6. choppack1 08/06/2006 at 10:03 AM #

    Worth noting – we’re still waiting for Bond and G. Smith to be cleared by NCAA.

  7. Cardiff Giant 08/06/2006 at 12:41 PM #

    I was actually wondering after the fact – Anabelle is busy at WHAT? After all, isn’t publicizing the football team the Prime Directive of sorts for Media Relations at this time of year?

    The dropped passes don’t worry me that much, as compared to the Holes:

    *Dailey and Sexton were a bit off in their timing on many throws. Too often the receivers had to slow down in their route in order to allow the ball to catch up to them. When asked about this after practice, Bunting said it should take between “a week-to-10 daysâ€? for the quarterbacks to get their timing down. He also noted UNC’s bevy of new receivers, which also must work on their timing running routes. In other words, this will be a work in progress all month.”

  8. bTHEredterror 08/06/2006 at 1:11 PM #

    I’m afraid to jinx, and I know the expectations are low, but I think we are gonna be better than people think. We are loaded at most skill positions, and receivers usually drop balls the first day of practice. The return of Brooks settles us down a little at DE, and if Reggie steps up (he’s currently 1st team) and the LB’s stay relatively healthy, our DB’s should be able to cover them up while they settle down. I think we as fans should adopt Reggie as our favorite and scream louder for him than any other. Look at the sacrifices, one after another this highly touted young man has accepted to help his team. We can help our program by encouraging that type of behavior from others. Have a great year #20.

  9. packemup 08/06/2006 at 2:47 PM #

    I completely agree about Reggie. He needs to feel the love early and often. Much like T Hall when he was first announced, Reggie deserves a standing ovation, if he indeed starts at Will opening day. And if he makes a mental error early on… no freekin’ boos! This kid has sacrificed a lot to contribute to his team as much as possible, while young men of lesser stature have routinely left the program for greener pastures.

    And good luck to you as well, Mr. Greco. 😉

  10. old13 08/06/2006 at 5:43 PM #

    And that Norris article is less informative than any other GoPack.com article how! What a rag!

  11. WolfdotPack 08/06/2006 at 6:57 PM #

    Punting may be one of our best plays. I wouldn’t overlook it.

  12. StateFans 08/07/2006 at 7:51 AM #

    ^It was last year. Deraney was undoubtedly our MVP until we started playing Andre Brown.

  13. vtpackfan 08/07/2006 at 8:09 AM #

    Blackman catching punts, and kickoffs? Anyone got the scoop on weho will be returning kickoffs yet, because there is a rule change effective this year that lowere the kicking tee. Avg. kicker before could get it to end line once in awhile, now to the 10-15. We will have an asset in Deraney if he can still boom some down towards opposite end zone (praying we give him some KO opportunities)

  14. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 08/07/2006 at 11:33 AM #

    Maybe we can use Steve Martin’s strategy from the ‘Let’s Get Small’ era- Punt on first down.

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