CJ Palmer is one of the Bobcats playing at a faster tempo in fall camp
Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson
Bobcats Take Tempo Up a Level on Day Two
8/10/2010 3:58:10 PM | Football
Ash likes what he sees early in MSU's fall camp
It doesn't take much interaction with a member of the Montana State team or coaching staff early in the Bobcats' 2010 fall training camp before the word 'tempo' comes up. It was at the forefront of Rob Ash's thoughts after MSU's second fall practice on Tuesday.
“I thought our tempo was great,” Ash said after Tuesday morning practice. “I thought our defense played very quick today. The front seven looked very quick, did a nice job, and I thought in some of the (seven-on-seven drills) the linebackers were flowing around well. Jody Owens made a nice pick in the half-skell, and I thought (the defense) reacted well. But the offense I thought clicked, too.”
The focus on playing up-tempo football has seeped into every aspect of MSU's fall camp, Ash said, and is apparent even after two practices. “I really liked (the tempo on Tuesday),” Ash said. “It's putting a lot of pressure on the offense to play with some urgency, it makes the defense line up and declare what they're going to do, but what I like best as a coach is we're going to be in great shape physically because we're running all the time, both sides of the ball. We'll be in really good condition.
Ash said the give-and-take of fall camp began to emerge during Tuesday morning's session, with the interplay between offense and defense apparent in the passing game. “We hit some intermediate balls today which is a focus of our early drills. That's a good sign to start hitting those early on. That's going to help our defense, too. That's going to help our defense if we attack the intermediate level, because our defense will learn to defend that better. It was a little bit of a sore spot last year.”
While the Bobcats have not donned pads yet – shoulder pads come on Wednesday – Ash said the coaching staff is evaluating from the ground up. “We're evaluating footwork, that's an important one,” he said. “(Monday) night we watched tape from the helmets-only scrimmages and watched everybody's footwork. Are they taking the right foot first when they're going right, left foot first when they're going left, details like that. That's huge for a lineman.”
The staff's evaluation broadens on Wednesday, Ash said. “So that's what we work on now, and we'll get to the contact evaluation as soon as tomorrow, when we at least get the shoulder pads on. We'll be able to find out a lot more of what they can do,” Ash said.
The team practices in helmets and shoulder pads on Wednesday and Thursday, then don full pads Friday. “Friday we put pads on, and that'll be a day to get used to full pads,” Ash said. “We'll have some live tackling drills but team (period) will still be everybody up.”
Ash indicated that the first scrimmage of fall camp is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at around 2:30 pm. “We'll have a light review in the morning, and we're going to go pretty good on Saturday afternoon. We'll go in the Stadium with officials.”
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