Saturday, July 28, 2012

Day 2 in the books

Saturday July 28th was day 2 of practice. The morning practice went from 10:30-11:30. It was once again a walk through. The first part of the walk through was special teams. What I noticed was Percy Harvin took the majority of the kicks as the primary return man.

The other observation came after the walk through. Jay Glazer from FOX sports came walking off the practice field with Christian Porder. Glazer was conducting an intervew as the 2 were walking towards the locker room.

The weather for the morning practice was absolutely beautiful and a little on the cool side. The crowd size was on the small size for the walk through.

The afternoon practice started at 2:45 and went to 5. It was a good size crowd and the sun was out producing the heat we have got use to lately. It was thankfully not as humid.

The observations made during this practice was who was lining up with the first units. Brandon Fusco played right guard for the second day in a row.

I noticed Letroy Guion lining up next to Kevin Williams at defensive tackle. The receiving corps as Percy Harvin and Jerome Simpson. The safeties were Mistral Raymond and Jamarco Sanford. Things could change but for today this is what I witnessed.

Percy Harvin is lighting things up catching everything thrown his way. His abililty to dive and hang onto the ball is so fun to watch. Today he ran down a deep ball leaving his defender and then catching it.

The tight ends once again made some unbelievable catches. Today I got to see Rhett Ellison in action with the tight ends. He is the draft choice out of USC and is wearing number 40. I was very impressed at least for today.

The defensive ends vs offensive tackles is intriguing with Brian Robison against Phil Loadholt on the right side. Matt Kalil vs Jared Allen on the left. This will be an awesome 3 weeks to watch this battle everyday.

There are 4 quarterbacks in camp. Christian Ponder,Joe Webb, Sage Rosenfels and the last is McLeod Bethel-Thompson who is wearing number 4. Bethel-Thompson is a rookie free agent out of Sacramento State College. This kids arm is incredible and very accurate. I do not know his future but 2 days so far so good.

The accuracy of all 4 quarterbacks has been fun to watch. I know it is practice but to see the connection with the receivers is an encouraging way to start camp.

On the defensive side Jasper Brinkley is playing middle linebacker with the first unit. The one player standing out to me in the first 2 days is draft choice,Robert Blanton. He was drafted out of Notre Dame. On Friday he had an interception and today he had a great break up of a pass. He was mad he did not intercept but the break he had on the ball was still encouraging to see.

Two personal stories with one the St.Paul Pioneer Pres had found out my passsion an they made a video of me as I spoke about my story of why I love this team. It will be on line on PioneerPlanet.com in the sports section.

The other when I was heading out of Mankato I stopped by Kwik Trip by campus. I pulled in and and then a nice SUV pulled up next to me. Who came out? Adrian Peterson was right next to me. The crowd that came up to him was incredible. He seemed so personable as I watched him pose for pictures with fans and he signed autographs. There were vehciles driving up behind my car and sticking their cameras out the windows and taking pictures. The workers were even coming out to meet him. It was incredible. I did not want to back me car up because Adrian was standing there and I did not want to run over his foot.

It was another great day to be in Mankato. Sunday camp is closed so Monday I will make my next journey. Gas started out at 3.55 a gallon on Thursday and today 3.49. I can only hope it keeps going down as I have 13 more heavenly trips to make.

Thanks for reading
Purplestick




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