Saturday, April 10, 2010

Saturday practice update: why coaches go gray...

News and notes from Saturday's practice session:
  • Mike Osiecki won't be practicing for the remainder of the spring following his arrest for allegedly shoplifting a PowerBar Monday. Randy Edsall said Osiecki isn't off the team, and that the program still supports him, but the situation called for a punishment. Exactly what Osiecki will be doing is "between Mike and myself," Edsall said. "He'll be taking care of some things I want him to take care of, and we'll let the legal process run its course. He and I have talked, and will continue to talk. But he does not deserve to be out here at this point and time."

  • Osiecki practiced Tuesday, a day after his arrest. News of the arrest was made public Wednesday. Osiecki wasn't allowed to practice starting Thursday. When asked when he learned of the arrest, Edsall declined to comment any further. "I think that's all that needs to be said," Edsall said.

  • Erik Kuraczea arrived late for Saturday's practice, and was sent home by Edsall. "When you don't get up on time, and it's not that important to you to be here on time, then as the head coach it's not that important to have you out here practicing," Edsall said. "I told him to go back and catch up on his sleep. He needed more, so he went back home and got sleep."

  • Over the last week, Edsall has sent a top defensive player (Lawrence Wilson) and a top offensive player (Jordan Todman) back to study hall for academic reasons. There was the Osiecki incident, and today Kuraczea. None were major incidents, and Edsall isn't concerned there might be a discipline problem. "You have a level of expectation for young people," Edsall said. "The thing you have to understand is in our society, a lot of these young people have never been held accountable to the standards they're held accountable to here. We're taking 18 years of habits and we're trying to change them. Some of the young men do it the right way, some of them don't. We're not going to compromise what we believe in or the values we have, If they don't follow them, there's going to be consequences."

  • The wide receivers continue to do good things -- at least when I'm watching. Today during the live scrimmage, Malik Generett made a pretty grab along the sidelines, chopping his feet to stay in bounds. On the next play, Generett made a down field block on Gilbert Stlouis that got tailback Martin Hyppolite into the end zone. A little later, Michael Smith made a catch across the middle, and at the end of a big gainer laid a shoulder into Jerome Junior that knocked the safety onto his keyster, where he stayed for a moment before getting up.

  • Twyon Martin has slipped to second team on the depth chart at defensive lineman, and Edsall feels he's close to being moved to the third team if he doesn't pick things up. Ryan Wirth and Shamar Stephen have both passed Martin, Edsall said. "He's got to stop being so lazy," Edsall said. "It's the truth. He has to stop being lazy. He has to learn to push himself a bit more if wants to get the ability he has and maximize it. ... It's up to Twyon. If he wants to be third team, then he can keep going the way he is. If he wants to get back to where he was, then he needs to work a lot harder."

  • Expect a lot of 'OR's when the final spring depth chart is released (not that it will be released...we may or may not get a depth chart at the start of preseason camp in August).

  • Edsall is happy with the offensive line, particularly the development of Kevin Friend and Adam Masters. "I don't think Zach got sacked one time today," Edsall said. "I think he got hit once after the ball was done." Edsall thinks making the quarterbacks fair game to be hit in practice has made a huge difference both with the QBs and the line this spring.

  • Jordan Todman was back in practice today, and said he learned a lesson. Kicked out of practice for missing classes before, Todman said he didn't miss classes this time. "I went to class. Got to class on time, did the wrong thing in it," Todman said. "It was nothing crazy. No skipping class, no cheating, nothing like that. I was using technology in class, and it was unacceptable. I agree with (coach Edsall). There are no stars on this team, we're all equal, all held to the same standards."

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Chip. Always good to read your updates.

April 10, 2010 2:20 PM 
Anonymous downstatehusky said...

Chip, reason to be concerned about Twyon? Do you think he's really fallen on the depth chart, or is this Edsall firing a warning shot across the bow?

April 11, 2010 10:33 AM 
Blogger Chip Malafronte said...

Thanks, anonymous. Appreciated.

April 11, 2010 11:00 AM 
Blogger Chip Malafronte said...

Downstater...Good question. I think it's a little of both. It's a clear warning that he needs to start working harder. Twyon has great potential, and should be starting come fall. No slight to Wirth or Stephen (who I think can be a real force at DT soon). But, as we've seen in the past, Edsall won't start him if he feels he's going through the motions in practice.

April 11, 2010 11:09 AM 

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