Approaching CMS on this sunny Tuesday morning, you can hear the sounds of practice gathering themselves, buffered by towering mountains of ruined furniture sitting outside greek houses. Inside the concourse, players pour out of the Aaron Rodgers Team Locker Room, dapping up the bronzed fist of Joe Kapp before pooling on to the field for zero period.
Periods 1-5 go on as they have. Stretching breaks out into “Mod Bracket with O line and D line pods.” Later we get treated to some individual battles from an energetic line drill. Younger defensive players give their full force against towering offensive lineman, as coaches urge the blocking side to really unleash on the young bucks. It is a day for hard lessons if you didn’t know where you were at as a young defensive lineman. Everyone takes it in stride. Redshirt Sophomore Fredrick Williams III has encouraging reps during this drill.
The safeties room commits themselves to tackling drills. Physicality is less of a worry with this backfield than normal.
After practice, TE coach Steve Huanga and WR coach Ike Hilliard are both made available. They are thoughtful men, and Huanga in particular, is vocally an inversion of his on field personae, I find myself leaning in to hear better.
Huanga is encouraged by his group; “This is probably one of the most physical groups I’ve been a part of.” Noting that nobody thinks of themselves as having an emphasis towards being a blocking or catching tight end, “nobody thinks of themselves as one or the other.” Huanga also emphasized the emotional bond, and how, by letting the players into his life, he could actually coach them harder. “When you have a really good relationship with someone, you can coach them even harder, ‘cause they know you care for them. Running my own room I get to see that daily, because I have to challenge them.”
Hilliard was not shy about acknowledging that this is not an offensive for beginners. It takes time and focus to learn, as well as technical skill to execute. “It’s been a joy, running an NFL playbook is challenging, trying to understand the spacing, the timing, the rhythm that comes with it, progression reads, and everything’s different on a snap by snap basis.” Blocking and scheme are top of mind, and the room shows a diverse range of skillsets that are individuating further as camp progresses.
The presser breaks up. I think back to the player schedules on the University Club Monitors day one, and remember the players are in class. They’ll be back to work by evening.
Thanks! I'm almost tempted to go down the rabbit hole of understanding exactly what is meant by an NFL playbook as opposed to the nominally wimpier college football playbook, but nah, likely to be way over my head. In Tosh I trust.
I love the way you tell the story, adding specific details. Keep up the good work, Would love to hear your opinion about how the battle is going for QB 2,3,4.