The Blue Board

I was at the Blue team practice while Taylor Hamm was at the Red team's this morning. This afternoon I will be at Red while Sonny Shipp will be at Blue.

It was a bit tough to see too much this morning for a couple of reasons. One, they did not have numbers on their jerseys or names anywhere on their uniforms. Two, it was mostly installation. We were able to talk to a few players after practice but there will be all the media availability we want this afternoon and evening.

Here are a few basic observations. They should be much more in-depth as we figure out who the players are and they do more than just installation.

-Missouri QB commit Trent Hosick really struggled throwing the ball. His velocity and spin were just not there. I think he is a great athlete and one of the best leaders I've ever come across but I see him playing WR or S for the Tigers.

-RB Kaleb Blanchard is listed at 6-1/212 and he was one of the main guys I wanted to see in person. He is actually probably 5-10.5/190 or so. Still a good-looking back though. The recent Arkansas decommit tole me he has a top five of LSU, Ole Miss, TCU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Only Ole Miss has offered at this point but he says Vandy is close and Butch Jones was heavily recruiting him at Cincy.

-OT R.J. Prince is one of the best-looking OL on the hoof I've ever seen. He's probably every bit of the 6-8/310 he is listed at. He has no bad body fat at all and his frame can easily hold a lot more weight. North Carolina seems to have gotten a pretty good one there.

-OT Dan Skipper is also every bit of the 6-10 he is listed at. He has a little trouble bending his knees to get low enough in the run game but he moves a little better than I expected. The Tennessee commit is planning to take visits to Ole Miss on 1/25 and Arkansas on a date TBD/

-I've seen West Virginia OG commit Tyler Tezeno several times in person but I've never seen him next to other big-time DI linemen. I knew he was undersized but he is really small for a Big 12 OL. I could see him moving to DT sooner rather than later at WVU. He's got a strong lower body.

-Missouri commit Chase Abbington is playing RB at 6-4/210 but he will almost assuredly be moved to S or LB pretty quickly in Columbia.

-Immokalee (Fla.) DT Deadrin Senat is very short. He is incredibly quick but the former Florida State pledge could have a lot of trouble playing in the interior in college.

-Also, I'm pretty sure that S Trevell Dixon is not here.