University of Richmond Athletics
Spider Football Practice No. 1 Report
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond Spiders football team began its first step to a 2014 CAA Championship on Monday when the team officially opened fall camp with practice.
After a press conference out on the field, head coach Danny Rocco and the team began practice at 2:15 p.m. on a muggy day in Richmond. The team worked on 1st and 2nd down installation for both the offense and defense, along with base fundamentals and techniques, wearing just helmets with no pads.
Practice Notes
- OL Nick Ritcher was back at left tackle with the first team offense. Ritcher missed the final 10 games of last season after sustaining an injury during the NC State game.
- Working at inside linebacker, senior Aaron Roane made a nice play to stop a run at the line of scrimmage against the first team offense.
- On a well-executed screen pass to WR Stephen Barnette, WR Rashad Ponder and WR Brian Brown both had great blocks to spring Barnette for a huge gain.
- DL Winston Craig made a nice play at the line, batting down a QB Michael Rocco pass intended for TE Hunter Westfall.
- Both QB Michael Strauss and Rocco were sharp in the 7-on-7 drills. Strauss didn’t have an incompletion, while Rocco looked good working with both the first and second team offenses.
- The tight ends had a great practice, with Sean Fitzpatrick, Hunter Westfall, Christian Conklin and Nick Holloway all having receptions.
Post-Practice Quotes
“The first practice went well. I thought we had pretty good recall from the end of the spring. You can tell that the guys did a lot on their own out here in the summer. It really looks like we have got a two-deep on offense and defense. Two groups that we can run out there and kind of look like we know what we are doing. We have a good understanding of the fundamentals and the expectations at the positions, so we are off to a good start and will look at the film tonight.”
-- Head coach Danny Rocco on the team's first practice
“It felt good to get back out there. Defensively, we took a lot of steps. We’ve been together going on two years now, the whole squad, so I thought we looked pretty good out there. There was definitely some rust with the long layoff in the summer, but for the most part I was pleased with our effort.”
-- DB Reggie Barnette on the defense
“It went fine. We need to work on our technique, which is something we will get back to tomorrow, but as far as execution we did everything the way we were supposed to do it. All we can do is work on it and improve each day.”
-- WR Stephen Barnette on the offense