Thursday, September 27, 2012

49ers hitting stride in football practice

The 49ers completed their fourth day of football practice in pads and helmets Wednesday.

-- Charlotte's practices are set up in 18 five-minute segments, with director of football operations Trevor Lambert blowing an air horn signalling the end of each one. The defense practiced on one field for much of the afternoon, before joining the offense on the full-length field for the final 30 minutes or so.
"The thing that's nice now is that at the back end of practice, they're finally getting in shape," said coach Brad Lambert. "The first one or two days, we couldn't get to the 18th segment without everybody being worn out. We're not practicing long, but we're practicing at a pretty good pace."

-- The 49ers ended the practice with 20 plays from scrimmage. For what it's worth, here's what appeared to be the first teams on offense and defense (and there's plenty of time -- about 11 months-- for this to change, which it will).

Offense
QB: Matt Johnson
RB: Alan Barnwell
RB/slot: Will Thomas
Slot: Jaquil Capel
WR: Jamel Rose
TE: Jonathan Gidney
LT: Jamal Clovington
LG: Thomas La Bianca
C: Mason Sledge
RG: Jarred Barr
RT: Daniel Blitch
Defense
DL: Larry Ogunjobi
DL: Michael Potthast
DL: Hayden Beck
DL: Devin Clegg
LB: Shomari Jones
LB: Brandon Rodriguez
LB: Zeb Little
CB: Jordan Adams
S: Alex Petzke
S: Danny Leonardi
CB: Sam Dexter

-- The coaching staff is nothing if not enthusiastic. Assistant secondary coach John Russell got his troops going by bringing them together before a drill:
"Somebody light me up!" Russell shouted.
The players made a hissing sound, like a fuse burning down.
Then, they all yelled "Boom!"

-- Only about 5 yards separates the practice field from a fence, which held up well when Terrence Winchester tackled Alan Barnwell into it one play.

--  The practice was very physical. One drill had defensive backs playing off blocks and going after receivers who were running sideline routes. Then there was the always popular one-on-one blocking drills that end up with players grappling each other to the ground.

-- Brad Lambert singled out Barnwell, a 5-9, 165-pound running back from Burlington, and Ogunjobi, a 6-3, 253 pound nose guard from Greensboro, as players who have impressed early.

"Alan is getting a lot of work," said Lambert. "I've been impressed with his speed. What jumps out at you is how he hits that hole. He's also a really physical runner. He makes our defensive players better because they've really got to show up and tackle.

"Larry is  playing right in the middle of the defense and has a real presence. He can stop things up for us. I've been impressed with his quickness."

20 comments:

Proud FSL Owner said...

No trolls yet? Wow.

49RFBN said...

Looking good, can't wait for Fall full practice in the stadium and the Spring Game.

Anonymous said...

I didn't go to UNC-Charlotte but have to say that it's exciting to see this program develop.

Go Niners!

Josh said...

Thanks for the update David! Can't wait for 2013! Go Niners!

Hoon said...

Very exciting. Can't wait!

Anonymous said...

glorified high school practice. awesome. uncc has a pretty solid flag football team that some of these kids probably couldnt make.

Anonymous said...

Go Charlotte Forty Niners!
Got FSL's ?

Anonymous said...

fsl's are the biggest scam i've ever heard of.

Anonymous said...

^^^
Never heard of Bernie Madoff? He's in jail not that far from Chapel Hill. Guess they wanted him to feel at home!
You really should read more.

Anonymous said...

What's the over/under on how many players are arrested before they ever play a game?

Anonymous said...

^^^^
Same as your IQ: zero

Anonymous said...

We would sell out our games in25,000 seat Memorial Stadium if we had decided to play our games there.

Anonymous said...

Memorial no longer seats 25,000. It now has a capacity of under 20,000.

Anonymous said...

Charlottes new stadium will have 25,000 seats soon----including the temps.

Anonymous said...

When do we start the next planned expansion to between 40,000 and46,000 permanent seats? We're going to need a stadium that big when ECU, Marshall, and a few others come to town.

Anonymous said...

^^^^ I foresee the UNCC/ECU game drawing enough support to eventually move it to the big stadium downtown.

Anonymous said...

Judy Rose is doing football the right way at the right time. I hope the people (*cough, cough CFI) who wanted football sooner than when we were ready understand that they did a lot more harm than good. Is it so hard to understand that we waited for the right opportunity? If it hadn't been for all those so-called fans, we wouldn't be talking about Memorial fucking stadium right now.

49RFBN said...

Anon 12:35pm

Your sarcasm is inspirational!

Anonymous said...

It's fun to be right here, seeing the program take each little step forward. Doesn't sound like the coaching staff is having trouble motivating anyone.

I'm not worried about an insufficient number of seats for the games with UNC-Greenville. After their first @$$-whipping or two their fans will stop coming down here - and might even stop going to the games against us in their own stadium when we whip them up there.

332 days to victory #1 over Campbell.

GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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