Monday Practice Notes

Monday’s practice for the Texas A&M football team was another refreshing change, taking place in the later evening hours in temperatures in the low 80s.

That’s the latest practice I can recall in nearly 15 years, when Mike Sherman used to hold night practices. This nice trend won’t last, though, because the Aggies will practice in the morning on Wednesday.

Practice observations

Jerome Myles practiced! And goodness, Texas A&M’s top-ranked commit from last year’s class didn’t take long to show his stuff. He impressed right off the bad with his speed and fluidity. Fellow freshman Kelshaun Johnson, who I don’t think I saw the first day, was also out there. The full receiver corps was out there, and it’s very different from what it was a year ago.

We clearly didn’t see all of practice, but Marcel Reed wasn’t having his best night throwing the deep ball. He overthrew several and underthrew a couple more, but also put one right into the hands of Amari Niblack (who was spending time with the wideouts again). What does this mean? Absolutely zilch. It means it’s the middle of training camp and everyone has a lousy day. There were quite a few drops as well.

I keep mentioning that Rueben Owens looks like he’s his old self again, and it merits repeating it once more. Tonight, he just looked so smooth and exploded out of his cuts, especially in the passing game. Again, if you can keep Owens, Le’Veon Moss and Amari Daniels healthy, the running back group is one of the nation’s best.

Last week I said Deuce Fatheree is the likely backup left tackle in the event of an injury to Trey Zuhn, and I’m going to stick with that assessment. Right now, Fatheree and Robbie Bourdon look like they’re the primary backups at tackle, and that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone.

I know he was brought in to block, but I really like Nate Boerkircher as a receiver as well. He’s obviously a big guy, but he’s shown good hands in the handful of times we’ve gotten to watch him.

I guess I’m starting to drink the Kool-Aid, but I feel a little bit better about the receivers and the offensive line than I did at the start of camp.

This will be the fourth consecutive offseason camp (two spring practices included) where I’ve written the following, but it’s so obvious it’s breathtaking: receivers coach Holmon Wiggins does more coaching in one practice than Daymeune Craig did in the however many years he was at A&M. And some of the stuff he’s teaching the guys genuinely don’t know. He’s getting into the fine points of playing receiver, running routes and getting separation from defenders. I got a kick out of him saying “aim small, miss small” repeatedly tonight during a drill. If you’re a fan of The Patriot (or American Sniper), you know this line well.