Practice Report 4/10 -Jones Progress Report
With on-again, off-again drizzle, the UC Bearcats finished their week of work at "the Nipp" and now have the Easter weekend off before getting right back at it. While tempted to distribute "bunny ears" and have an egg hunt, Coach Kelly (in jest) begrudgingly has a free weekend, "I'd rather be out here practicing, but I guess you've got to give'em sometime off. Easter would be a good weekend to give'em off. (It) makes all of their parents happy."
(Note: this writer sometimes injects sarcastic humor into his reports and a certain media-savvy coach often complies.)
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On a serious note, Kelly did address some spring injuries (none serious). Mardy Gilyard went down Wednesday and has watched practice the last couple of days in sweats. He's been diagnosed with a bone bruise and has been told to take it easy for two to three days. That means #1 could possibly be back on the field when practice resumes Tuesday.
Also, senior LB Andre Revels has not been practicing, but has been doing a lot of rehab things on the side. Revels had some things "cleaned up" in his knee (no MCL,ACL,etc.) and is being held out of contact. The staff expects Revels to be back in full gear Tuesday, but again, no contact.
On Revels, Coach Kelly said, "He's making good progress. The thing about Andre Revels is he's a smart football player, he picks things up, he's interactive on the sideline. (He's) not a guy that's disinterested. He's a sharp kid and that's really been his story since he's been here. He's really done more with less. He's not the most talented player, but he's one of the most engaged and smart players we have on defense."
I witnessed some of Andre's "interaction" on the sideline during some of the spirited contact drills that went on Friday morning. At one point he was clearly coaching sophomore LB J.K. Schafer (LaSalle) on where to be in a certain scheme. It was not your typical player to player "jawing", it was the words of a veteran obviously passing off good advice to a young player and it was very encouraging to see.
Also, at the linebacker position (and staying there) is Demetrius Jones. Jones was back wearing #2 today (he had #44 early in the week). With added media today that hadn't heard Coach Kelly's previous proclamations, the question of switching Jones from offense to defense came up again.
"It became a question of where was he going to fit?" Kelly said. "With Pike at number one and Chazz solidified at number two, we wanted to get a very gifted athlete on the field. The drop position, the outside linebacker position, we thought would be a good fit."
And so, along came Jones.
How's he doing?