Wednesday afternoon notes
Published 4:22 pm Wednesday, August 20, 2008
No practice happening this afternoon (more on that in a second) but a few notes to pass on from today’s press conference with Tyrone Willingham.
Center Juan Garcia wasn’t at practice this morning, and Willingham said Garcia had a death in the family, and should be back soon.
Speaking of Garcia, Willingham was asked about Garcia’s progress and if he might make it back to start the Oregon game.
“It’s still too early to say who will be the starter, but I’m very confident and comfortable with where he is today,” he said.
Tight end Michael Gottlieb (hamstring) returned to practice this morning. Willingham said he is still “fairly confident” that Gottlieb will be ready to play against Oregon.
As for the afternoon practice not happening, here’s what Willingham said.
“We won’t be out on the field,” he said. “We’ll spend a little bit more time meeting and working on some things from that perspective. It’s just a natural thing to do base on where our team is and how they’re moving and how they’re feeling. And it should help them be even better toward our goal in about 11 days.”
“What we had scheduled for this afternoon was really a rest for the guys in terms of what we did on the field. We call it a mock game, and that game is more for the coaches than it is for the players. The players go out and kind of go through things lightly, and the coaches are really working on down and distance, substitutions, and those kinds of things that we need to do to have ourselves game ready.”
I also talked to special teams/tight ends coach Brian White today to see how the position battles are going there. A few spots like punter (Jared Ballman) and long snapper (Danny Morovick) have been set for a while, but others are still being sorted out.
White said the punt return duties will likely go to sophomore receiver D’Andre Goodwin, while kickoff returns could go to a pair of freshmen. White mentioned Chris Polk and Jordan Polk (and yes, they are related if you were wondering. Second cousins) as possible kick returners. Backup quarterback Ronnie Fouch looks to be the holder, White said.
The most uncertainty is in the kicking game. Last season, Ryan Perkins handled PATs and field goals, while Ballman handled kickoffs and some long field goal attempts because of Perkins’ knee problems. Both of those guys, plus redshirt freshman Erik Folk, are all in the mix for the place kicking jobs, while Ballman and Folk are both battling for kickoff duties.
I’ll have more on special teams in tomorrow’s paper.
