Day 7 in the books

Hey, folks-

Coming to you from the well-appointed media room at the Edge Athletic Center. Sitting in again for Doug.

The Jackets had a practice dedicated to special teams work Sunday afternoon. They split up into blue and white teams, and did a lot of field goal and punting work. Coach Paul Johnson made it into a game, white vs. blue, with points awarded for successful plays. They ran a bunch of trick plays to varying degrees of success.

A couple things that came to light, some of which are in the notebook. You can pencil in Jerrard Tarrant at punt returner. I think the coaching staff probably had this in mind already, but I think his efforts today may have sealed it. If you’ll remember, Tech didn’t do so hot returning punts last year, at times having trouble just holding onto the ball. Cooper Taylor, Stephen Hill and Daniel McKayhan also took turns at punt returner.

The kick returning job is not settled. Tarrant, obviously, is a candidate, and you’ll remember Roddy Jones (who is still out), Marcus Wright and others did some work there last year.

Also, it looks like Scott Blair will handle kickoffs and field goals (and PAT’s) and either Chandler Anderson or Sean Poole will do the punts. Blair should benefit from not having to do all three. Whether it happens or not depends on if Anderson or Poole can win the job. Both looked pretty good Sunday.

The long-snapping job is up in the air. Brad Sellers is the No. 1, but didn’t get to snap today because of a head injury. Johnson said he is day to day. Jeff Lentz and Tyler Morgan did most (if not all) of the snaps Sunday. A few were high, but nothing horrendous. Morgan is a true freshman from Whitewater High in Fayette County whom I talked to a little bit after practice. He was invited to walk on after sending in his tapes. Tech thought enough of him that two assistants, Mike Sewak and Buzz Preston, and Johnson came to his house to encourage him to come. He said coming to Tech is “probably the best thing that’s ever happened.” I assume he meant it was the best thing that had ever happened to him, but, regardless, I appreciated his enthusiasm.

This is neither here nor there, but whenever I write about Sellers, I think about Brad Sellers the basketball player. Played at Ohio State, was a bust with the Chicago Bulls.

Anyway, that’s about it. Thanks for reading!