Random Thoughts – Extended Spring Edition

Shawn Moore is coaching the tight ends.

Every spring, there is an opportunity for a coaching staff – and a fan base – to get to know its team a little bit better. But likewise, there is an opportunity for those who follow the program to try to analyze a bit too closely what they have seen on the field in practices and the Spring Game. So this Spring, let’s try to avoid getting too in-depth in analyzing what should not be analyzed in-depth. Instead, let’s agree that the spring is what it is: a time when plenty of random thoughts can be bouncing around in terms of the promise of the future. Here are some of mine.

  • Will Hill absolutely, positively could garner All-ACC honors in 2012, if the rest of the front seven plays well enough so that he is not facing double teams on every single play. Hill really has taken on this offseason with a singular focus, and I have been very impressed by the way he sought to improve his game from both a tenacity and technique perspective. When an already well-established player like Hill wins the Rock Weir Award, I often see it as a case of a player finding a way to raise his ceiling in terms of what can be expected of him in the upcoming season, and I think Hill has done exactly that.
  • The other Rock Weir Award winner was Dominique Terrell after a spring when Terrell encouragingly rolled up his sleeves and really seemed to dig into the details. The solid relationship between Terrell and new wide receivers coach Marques Hagans could be one of those stories behind the story for the 2012 season.
  • The decision to have Shawn Moore coach the tight ends reflected a purposeful effort by Mike London to try to get the tight ends more involved in the passing game, a fairly natural consequence when you shift from having a former offensive lineman coach the tight ends and replace him with a former quarterback and the prior year’s wide receivers coach. Scott Wachenheim and Mike Saint Germain – a nice addition to the staff – are around to help out with the blocking aspects of the position but I think it was an excellent move to make sure that the tight ends again are threats in the passing game, especially on third down and up the seams.
  • If I am a coach being moved to coach the tight ends and I am being told that working them into the passing game is important, I am pretty happy to have Jake McGee among the group of kids I now am coaching.
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