Dress Rehearsal At Fouts Today, Vito Blog

[NT80]

August 23, 2007

Football news and notes

North Texas will undergo what amounts to a dress rehearsal today at Fouts Field in its final scrimmage before its season opener at Oklahoma. UNT will split into two teams, one with the players who are likely to see the field against the Sooners and a scout team.

A full crew of officials will be on hand. The coaches who will be in the press box for games will work from there during the scrimmage, which is closed to the public. (Can any of you non-public types report back?)

UNT spent large parts of its last practice before the scrimmage working on special teams and appears to have settled on its lineup of kickers and return men. Truman Spencer is still kicking off, Evyn Roman is returning punts and Antoine Bush is returning kickoffs. Thomas Moreland appears to be solidifying his hold on the kicking job.

Backup linebacker Tony Taveras missed Thursday's workout and will also miss today's scrimmage with an ankle injury. Offensive lineman Robert Peachey continued to miss practice with a bad hamstring. Defensive end Eddrick Gilmore could also miss the scrimmage. He hasn't been at practice in several days, although head coach Todd Dodge says he is still trying to return to the team.

In a fun little item, UNT's athletic trainers drop me a note every year on how much ice and tape a team goes through in practice. It's amazing to think about, so here goes.

So far in practice, UNT has used 54,000 pounds of ice, 12,750 bottles of Powerade and 5 1/2 miles of tape. As far as I know, none of the tape has been used to attach kickers to stationary objects like goal posts or trees.

In other random practice observations ...

Cornerbacks Latif Nurudeen, Antoine Bush and Kevin Ealey intercepted passes in team drills.

Wide receiver Breece Johnson made a nice leaping catch near the end zone in drills. Brock Stickler made a diving catch over the middle of the field. Casey Fitzgerald caught a touchdown pass that covered about 70 yards from quarterback Daniel Meager and Sam Dibrell also had a TD grab.

Redshirt freshman Esteban Santiago continues to get a long look with the first team at guard.

From the mailbag ...

Stan e-mailed today to ask about freshmen defensive linemen Jordan Scoggins and Jesse DeSoto. Both are getting a long look in practice, but are behind some experienced players in Isaac Thomas, Joseph Miller, Montey Kenner-Stevenson and Jonathan Stewart. None of the four veterans have proven to be star players at UNT, but their experience gives them the edge. Dodge said he is trying to determine if DeSoto could contribute this season.

I think Scoggins could turn into quite a player. He and DeSoto will contribute, but I don't know if it will be this season. It will depend a lot on how the four players in front of them perform and if all four stay healthy.

Multiple people have also asked about Cam Montgomery, the highly regarded JUCO transfer running back. Cam is still around, but he hasn't jumped out as a potential impact player in practice. Everyone knows Jamario Thomas is UNT's No. 1 running back with Deavin Cox and freshman Micah Mosley just behind. Sometimes JUCO players just take a while to settle in after transferring. Cam could need some time.

UNT also seems to like Montgomery as a wide receiver out of the backfield. The Mean Green has thrown to him a bunch in practice. It was tough to see from the far end of the field, but it looked like Montgomery made an appearance in the slot today in passing drills.

Edited August 24, 2007 by NT80

[FirefightnRick]

Sounds like we are extremely thin at D line, worse than I had imagined?

Rick

[UNTLifer]

Defensive end Eddrick Gilmore could also miss the scrimmage. He hasn't been at practice in several days, although head coach Todd Dodge says he is still trying to return to the team.

Not good.

Nor the continued hamstring issue with Peachey.