The scenery may have been different but the team had a very smooth Day 1 of camp.
This was my first time at Murphy Canyon Park and as far as I can tell, there are some big advantages (also some cons that are out of the staff’s control). First off, the place is huge. There are two giant grassfields side by side where you can probably fit three practice fields combined in them. There is also a fairly big patch of turf grass on the south side for the team to practice on.
All fields go from east to west (unlike the SDSU fields which are north to south), so some of the receivers and quarterbacks did have to deal with the sun shining straight in their faces toward the end of practice as the sun began to set behind the canyon hills. There was one occasion where TE Shane Coleman ran a route and looked back for the ball only to be completely blinded by the sun. It was a wasted rep, sure, but they’re just going to have to live with it. I was told the team will have nothing but morning and midday practices - zero night practices - so it’s going to be like this all camp. Either the city won’t pay for the lighting structures or they just don’t work.
(I’m not sure. The sun really only became a factor during the final few periods of practices anyway.)
Moving on….
Some logistics:
Kevin McGarry is back on the field but is no longer helping out with the secondary. McGarry is now with Ernie Lawson as a defensive line coach. Again, his position seems like it’s going to be ever changing until Rocky Long eventually finalizes his staff (hopefully by summer?).
Richard Sanchez seems to be primarily coaching the safeties and grad assistant Demetrius Sumler worked with corners, but as of today it was pretty clear Sanchez had a bigger role with the entire secondary.
During individual warmups/drills Sanchez had all the safeties work on a backpedaling drill while all the corners worked on a breaking-on-the-ball drill with Sumler. Then after a few reps he did the same but switched the groups.
It seemed to work well, and Rocky Long gave off a feeling that made me think he has always wanted his DBs to practice in this manner. I’ll have more quotes on this from him on a front page story later (this forum post is basically just a run down).
As for Sanchez, he’s what you’d expect from a high school coach. He’s vocal, energetic and makes sure to give tips or words of advice to players after each rep. He’s not the quiet, pull-you-to-the-side after you mess up type of coach that Gonzales was, and he’s not the yell-at-you-after-every-mistake-you-make type of coach that White was. He’s right in between with a positive reinforcement type of coaching style. For example, Tariq Thompson was doing well during one-on-ones but he wasn’t breaking up many passes. Sanchez could tell he was frustrated when Thompson started to really swipe at the ball after the catch to try to force a fumble. Sanchez would simply acknowledge his effort by saying ‘keep going for those strips Tariq, and you’ll get one eventually.”
Little stuff like that.
As for the rest of the staff, little has changed.
Doug Deakin has a lot of control over the special teams periods and when he’s not busy with that, he goes right back over to join grad assistant Adam Roberts to work with the tight ends again. (Might I add, the tights end will be in very good hands with those two bright young guys coaching them up.).
On defense, I’m also still not sure that new defensive coordinator Zach Arnett will be calling plays when the live contact/scrimmaging begins. I asked Rocky about it straight up, and he just replied, “I’m not sure yet.” Remember, Rocky allowed Danny Gonzales to run the defense during past spring scrimmages - even before Gonzales was named DC - but it seems like he’s not ready to just give that up again to Arnett.
Heck, for all I know Rocky might miss calling the plays in spring and wants to keep himself occupied.
This was my first time at Murphy Canyon Park and as far as I can tell, there are some big advantages (also some cons that are out of the staff’s control). First off, the place is huge. There are two giant grassfields side by side where you can probably fit three practice fields combined in them. There is also a fairly big patch of turf grass on the south side for the team to practice on.
All fields go from east to west (unlike the SDSU fields which are north to south), so some of the receivers and quarterbacks did have to deal with the sun shining straight in their faces toward the end of practice as the sun began to set behind the canyon hills. There was one occasion where TE Shane Coleman ran a route and looked back for the ball only to be completely blinded by the sun. It was a wasted rep, sure, but they’re just going to have to live with it. I was told the team will have nothing but morning and midday practices - zero night practices - so it’s going to be like this all camp. Either the city won’t pay for the lighting structures or they just don’t work.
(I’m not sure. The sun really only became a factor during the final few periods of practices anyway.)
Moving on….
Some logistics:
Kevin McGarry is back on the field but is no longer helping out with the secondary. McGarry is now with Ernie Lawson as a defensive line coach. Again, his position seems like it’s going to be ever changing until Rocky Long eventually finalizes his staff (hopefully by summer?).
Richard Sanchez seems to be primarily coaching the safeties and grad assistant Demetrius Sumler worked with corners, but as of today it was pretty clear Sanchez had a bigger role with the entire secondary.
During individual warmups/drills Sanchez had all the safeties work on a backpedaling drill while all the corners worked on a breaking-on-the-ball drill with Sumler. Then after a few reps he did the same but switched the groups.
It seemed to work well, and Rocky Long gave off a feeling that made me think he has always wanted his DBs to practice in this manner. I’ll have more quotes on this from him on a front page story later (this forum post is basically just a run down).
As for Sanchez, he’s what you’d expect from a high school coach. He’s vocal, energetic and makes sure to give tips or words of advice to players after each rep. He’s not the quiet, pull-you-to-the-side after you mess up type of coach that Gonzales was, and he’s not the yell-at-you-after-every-mistake-you-make type of coach that White was. He’s right in between with a positive reinforcement type of coaching style. For example, Tariq Thompson was doing well during one-on-ones but he wasn’t breaking up many passes. Sanchez could tell he was frustrated when Thompson started to really swipe at the ball after the catch to try to force a fumble. Sanchez would simply acknowledge his effort by saying ‘keep going for those strips Tariq, and you’ll get one eventually.”
Little stuff like that.
As for the rest of the staff, little has changed.
Doug Deakin has a lot of control over the special teams periods and when he’s not busy with that, he goes right back over to join grad assistant Adam Roberts to work with the tight ends again. (Might I add, the tights end will be in very good hands with those two bright young guys coaching them up.).
On defense, I’m also still not sure that new defensive coordinator Zach Arnett will be calling plays when the live contact/scrimmaging begins. I asked Rocky about it straight up, and he just replied, “I’m not sure yet.” Remember, Rocky allowed Danny Gonzales to run the defense during past spring scrimmages - even before Gonzales was named DC - but it seems like he’s not ready to just give that up again to Arnett.
Heck, for all I know Rocky might miss calling the plays in spring and wants to keep himself occupied.
