It's AUGUST! Preseason NFL starts this month, and college football pops up Thursday, August 29th!!! (In that vein, Ole Miss at Vanderbilt is the only one I'm particularly interested in, although I'm hoping some of the scrub games are fun. I mean, is anyone in any doubt as to how North Carolina vs South Carolina is going to end?!)
Sorry for my absence, but I've got an ear infection, an upper respiratory infection, and my headaches are back again. Curled up on the couch now, going through reports on the Vikings' camp to see what I missed while in bed the past couple days.
So apparently Jerome Felton was out with a personal issue? He's back now, so that's good. From what I can tell the whole team turned up ready to practice, for which I am overwhelmingly thankful. I can't say enough about the culture of responsibility Leslie Frazier & Co have cultivated in our program.
Frazier seems very happy with the progress of some of our key playmakers, and says Ponder's choices last season down the stretch were very encouraging, and that he's being constantly evaluated and critiqued by his staff. Ponder's confidence is "at a high" right now, and Frazier seems happy with that. What I'm happy with are the reports that Ponder is establishing a rapport with the o-line. My biggest criticism of Ponder is that he would freak out in the pocket and run away...dude needs to pull a Brees and learn to trust his pocket, learn his o-line, and stay alert in case it collapses so he can get rid of the ball.
Matt Kalil has changed his diet so he can carry "healthy" weight, and is being coached carefully to continue to improve. He has said he wants to be the best left tackle in the league, and if he's putting in the necessary work to get there, we'll be in clover.
Word on the street is Jarius Wright is impressing the coaches and the rest of the team both with speed and great catches that "should have been batted incomplete". Since we had to lose Percy, I'm glad we have Jennings, Wright, and the rest of the WR corps stepping up. Wright is a little undersized, but if he can catch the ball and run with it, I don't much care how big he is.
Xavier Rhodes is also getting a lot of attention. The basic message is, he needs more practice, he needs more experience (for the NFL, the speed of the game, etc), but it's all there, and if he sticks around, he could be an integral part of this team.
Jay Glazer called Harrison Smith a stud. I agree!
That's all for now, hope we have more good news after camp closes today.
SKOL!
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