Stopped by practice today and caught some good action. Just thought I would leave a few news and notes.

- The team seems to be really hurting at cornerback. Kyle Smith and Kevin King were working with the second team defense and Lorenzo White Jr. and Derek Carter are the first team CB's right now. Avery Cunningham is playing backup safety, which is somewhat surprising given their lack of experience at CB, but perhaps that will change come the fall.

- I was really impressed with Tim Phillips and have been. I spoke to him after practice and will have a story out on him this week. He has a great center of gravity and a strong base. He is very tough to tackle. He reminds me a little bit of Lewis from Ball State, but perhaps that is getting to far ahead of things. I think Phillips has been the most impressive back outside of Austin White, but White has to sit a year. Phillips, Tipton, and Cotton are the consistent rotation of backs during practice.

- Enos looked to be frustrated with today's practice. He was getting upset with the quarterbacks at times for failing to get to the line of scrimmage and get the plays and formations together in a timely fashion. There were also some tight ends and wr's that were lining up wrong and not getting on the line of scrimmage.

- The QB battle is interesting. Sometimes it appears Fricke is No. 2, sometimes it looks as if Westendorp may be the guy. Niznak has looked good when he gets his reps. An interesting thing is that Westendorp has been taking snaps as a personal protector for the punt team. That brings up memories of Drew Stanton blowing out his ACL. I wouldn't count Niznak out for being on the active roster this season.

- Jordan McConnell continues to get a lot of first team reps at WR. The coaching staff must like him a lot. He has looked good in practice, but I have concerns about his ability to be a receiver on the outside.

- Depth seems to be pretty good at TE this season. Blackburn is a good player in my eyes and now they add Fleming, Southworth, and Sawicki to the mix. Odykirk has also looked good at times when he gets targeted.

- Right now my plan is to host a live chat a week from Saturday during the final Saturday practice of the spring. I will open it up to questions from CMU fans and readers to talk about anything CMU football. Practice has been starting around 9 a.m., so if you are interested or have some questions, be sure to be there.

It has been a little while since I posted some practice notes. I apologize, had a lot of things on my plate the last week, but I caught today's practice and had a few notes.

-Well for starters, CMU had a big injury today to guard Matt Kanitz. Looked to be an ankle injury, but he seemed upbeat about it following practice. He is probably done for the spring, but hopefully will be fine heading into the fall.
-D.J. Scott had a nice interception in scrimmage drills. Haven't heard much from him this spring, so good to see him making a nice play.
-Jahleel Addae had a fumble recovery for a score on a Tim Phillips fumble and also had a big hit over the middle on Cody Wilson. I think Addae could be a really good player this year and next.
-Lorenzo White Jr. and Bobby Seay have been doing some drill work at wide receiver. Not sure if this will carry into the fall, but with the injuries to WR's in the spring, it may just be precautionary.
-Taylor Bradley was back doing drills and looked good. He will be a nice addition this season at WR.
-The running backs as a whole had a pretty good day. Zurlon Tipton and Paris Cotton each had big runs and looked to be running aggressivley. Phillips also looked good, but had the big fumble for a score.
-Not sure how the Spring Game is going to look with the injury situation, but I plan on blogging from it and will be willing to take questions you might have on the team as it is going on, in case you can't make the game. I will post more on that later in the week.

That is about it for today. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question.

I took Tuesday off to attend to other matters, so hopefully nobody is too upset. Thursday's practice had a lot of scrimmaging. Here are some notes from the day.

-The WR's are very banged up. Kito Poblah is in red with an ankle injury, but it's nothing serious. Taylor Bradley is in red with an injury, Jeremy Wilson has a broken bone in his lower leg, Jordan McConnell was in green, and Matt Torres was in green. The starting WR's were Cody Wilson, Cedric Fraser, and Jerry Harris.
-Early in the scrimmage there was a lot of false start penalties, but that got cleaned up as the practice went on.
-Tyler Reed was used at tight end on occasion to back up David Blackburn.
-The defense did well early on, making a lot of stops, while the offense looked better late.
-The first touchdown pass was 26 yards from Ryan Radcliff to Fraser. Carl Colny had some nice runs to set up the score.
-Adam Fenton had three sacks during the practice and looked solid at defense end. He was up against the second team offensive line a lot though. Would like to see what he can do against Rocky Weaver or Eric Fisher.
-Blackburn had some nice catches and has good hands. CMU looked to go to him in a lot of 10-20 yard passes.
-Armond Staten had a nice hit on Blackburn over the middle that popped off Blackburn's helmet.
-Cody Wilson caught a 22-yard pass from Derek Rifenbury that got down to the 3-yard line, but CMU was unable to punch it in and had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Richie Hogan. Hogan also hit a 39-yarder on the day and seems to be the main kicker for the team.
-Lorenzo White Jr. broke up a touchdown pass from Rifenbury to Fraser on a jump ball in the end zone. It was a nice play by White.
-A.J. Westendorp had a 7-yard touchdown pass to Fraser on a play action roll out play. Westendorp made some nice throws and seems to be working toward the backup position behind Radcliff.
-Paris Cotton had some solid runs and looked hungry. He was taking on hits and seemed to be enjoying the offensive play calling.
-Jahleel Addae looks like he will be a heavy hitter at safety and will have to see the field some this fall.
-Some of the final scrimmages were situations where CMU was up big and looking to run out the clock. They did so both times with solid running from Cotton and Volny.
-The CMU defense won the two-minute drill with a fumble recovery by Dannie Bolden when Cody Wilson coughed it up.

That is all for today. More to come next week as the players get Easter Weekend off.

Here are some notes from Saturday's spring practice for CMU:

First to answer some questions:
- Adam Fenton looks good at defensive end. He has been getting reps with the second team. His coaches ride him a lot but I think it is because they know he can take it and they see a lot of potential in him. He is a very strong kid.
- The defensive end position has a lot of youth and inexperience. Right now, with Kashawn Fraser not being involved in contact drills, the first team ends have been Caesar Rodriguez and Joe Kinville. The second team has been Fenton and Will Schwarz while Darryll Stinson and Jarrett Fleming are also getting reps at DE. Fleming needs to add some weight, but he shows some promise and could be a nice speed rusher.
- At DT, Sean Murnane and Daniel Jackson are getting first team reps with John Williams out because of injury. Matt Maletzke and a guy not listed on the roster, Nate Williams, have gotten reps at second team along with Aaron McCord.
- At linebacker, along with Shamari Benton, Alex Smith and Mike Petrucci are getting second team reps.
- During pass skeleton, Dannie Bolden made a nice interception on a throw by A.J. Westendorp that was behind tight end David Blackburn. Bobby Seay also had a nice interception on a throw by Derek Rifenbury that was under thrown.
- CMU did a lot of third and short situational snaps and Tim Phillips looked good, picking up some solid runs. Paris Cotton also had some nice runs, including about a 25-yard touchdown run. The defense made some nice stuffs as well and were game on most plays.
- CMU then did some full scrimmage drives starting at the CMU 30-yard line. Nick Bellore laid a vicious hit on Tyler Reed as he was coming over the middle for a short pass. It got a big rise out of the entire defense.
- The highlight of the scrimmage was a 42-yard run by Cotton that eventually led to a score.
- The big problems for the offense, especially for Westendorp were getting the snaps under center handled. He also ran into the running back in the backfield on a few plays. Radcliff is the one quarterback that seems to have the fewest issues under center.
- In the kicking game, Richie Hogan seems to be setting himself apart. He looks to have the strongest leg and the most consistency.

That is about it for Saturday. I will have more notes next week.

Not a whole lot to report on today.

- Weather was much colder and a strong wind was causing problems for the quarterbacks at times. None of the quarterbacks looked too great today as there were a lot of missed throws and communication problems between them and the receivers. Still, Ryan Radcliff had a nice pass to David Blackburn late in pass skeleton drills and A.J. Westendorp had some nice lengthy passes too.
- The defense is well ahead of the offense right now, which is to be expected. The defense has been ahead of the offense in past springs and falls as well, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
- Shamari Benton and Armond Staten are both contending for the Sam Linebacker. Staten seems to be set in at the No. 1 spot but Benton is making a lot of positive strides and he has been taken under the wing of Matt Berning, which is a good sign for him.
- Tim Phillips looked pretty good today in practice. He has great feet and really can find the holes in the front line.
- Things got scrappy toward the end of practice, but I think it was more of a sign of frustration from the offense and their struggles. The team is still upbeat and I think they are responding well to the coaching staff.
- Frank Zombo and may of the other CMU Pro Day athletes were there. Frank told me he just started preparing for tight end work outs last weekend, but the response has been great and he said the Chiefs were going to be in contact with him.

That is about it for today. Sorry its nothing too exciting. The opening days were probably the biggest as far as new news goes. I will try to catch all of Saturday's practice and provide some more detail. If you would like to know about specific players, feel free to drop a comment and I will try to key in on them on Saturday.

The Chippewas hit the pads for the first time this spring and the coaching staff made sure they established a physical tone to practice. Here are some observations from the practice.

-The highlight of practice was the "Hoot and Holler" drill which was a 4-on-4 battle between the hashes from the 10-yard line. Each set of three blockers and a ball carrier went up against four defenders. They had four downs to score. There were plenty of big hits, with perhaps the biggest coming from Derek Carter as he hammered Malek Redd. It was one of the loudest pops I have heard in quite some time.
-Taylor Bradley, Tim Phillips, Tyler Reed, Matt Torres, and Kito Poblah each had nice runs to score while LaVarus Williams had a couple of nice hits.
-In passing skeleton against the defense, A.J. Westendorp had some nice deep ball throws including a sure fire touchdown pass to Jordan McConnell that would have been about a 70-yard play had the drill been able to go the full field. Westerndorp also had a nice throw to Jerry Harris that drew a pass interference penalty on Gary Jackson.
-McConnell also caught a nice deep ball from Ryan Radcliff in the drills.
-Dannie Bolden had a nice diving pass deflection on a pass to Torres that was on a 10-yard in route.
-The biggest issue of the day and for the spring so far has to be fumbled snaps under center. Each quarterback struggled with it and all stayed after practice to work on exchanges.
-The two-minute drill ended practice and the defense got the nod after Richie Hogan missed a lengthy field goal of over 40 yards.

The practice was certainly physical and gave the players an idea of what is expected on the field in the fall. Speaking of physical, Jahleel Addae is really playing physical from the safety position. I have been impressed with him. He is taking second string snaps right now, but I would have to expect he will see the field in the fall. The linebackers should be solid as Berning and Bellore are two of the best and guys like Staten and Shamari Benton have looked good in their positions. The biggest concern position wise would probably be defensive end, where CMU is lacking a lot of capable bodies who are of size and speed to play the position. Practice continues on Thursday, will have more info then.

CMU held another spring practice on Saturday. The team was indoors because of the cold weather. Plenty of recruits were on hand to watch the action and speak with the coaching staff afterward.

Here are a few notes from the practice:
-Add Jake Olson to those not practicing because of injuries. He didn't practice on Thursday either, but I couldn't identify him among the players because he didn't have a number on. Linebacker Kyle Zelinsky is also among the injured that are wearing red during the spring.
-With Olson out, Rocky Weaver and Eric Fisher are at the tackle spots with the first team with Darren Keyton and Matt Kanitz at the guards and Colin Miller at center.
-Paris Cotton was back at practice today and getting reps mixed in with the other backs. Volny and Tipton still seem to be getting the most looks though.
-Taylor Bradley is back with CMU and practicing, he has been practicing at wide receiver though, where he originally started. He was getting a lot of deep ball throws and he may be the guy CMU turns to the go down field in the passing game. Bradley showed a lot of promise as a receiver his freshman year, so this could be a nice move back for him.
-Vince Agnew had a couple of nice plays during 11-on-11 drills. He batted away a couple of passes and had a near pick-six that he dropped.
-Redshirt freshman Shamari Benton is getting a lot of reps with the second team defense at linebacker. He is playing the hybrid/nickel back spot that Tim Brazzel played most of last season. I was impressed with his play during practice and also how much weight he has put on since the fall. Benton was a kid that I wasn't sure was going to be able to make it through his first season early on, but now he looks to be doing well and in position to see the field this year.
-In the quarterback competition, Ryan Radcliff clearly looks to be the best option. He has the strongest arm and seems to make the best reads. Derek Rifenbury struggled with taking snaps, as he fumbled the snap twice. A.J. Westendorp has a nice arm and throws a pretty ball, but his delivery is very different and I think it leads to him telegraphing his throws. His delivery takes more time and it keys the secondary in to where the ball is going. He had a number of passes broken up for that reason today in my opinion.
-The funniest moment of the practice was during field goal practice and one of the kickers swore after missing an attempt. Dan Enos grabbed the kid and said "Hey, we don't talk like that here. My kids are here. We have recruits here. We don't talk like that." Given the previous regime and the language they used, that is quite a difference in practice procedure.
-Dan LeFevour and Antonio Brown were at practice today. I got a chance to talk with LeFevour for a minute and he sounds optimistic about how his draft prep is going. He has some personal workouts lined up in the coming weeks and his pro day should be highly attended by NFL scouts. He felt the key to his pro day will be his arm strength and mechanics, as he has made some slight corrections to his throwing motion. Allen Ollenburger will be his center during the workouts. LeFevour added that he would like to go to a team where he has a chance to play early in his career, but also has a veteran on the squad that can help mentor him and bring him along.
-I spoke with Radcliff following practice and will have a story on him in Sunday's paper. I also spoke with QB Coach Jay Johnson about the quarterbacks.

CMU holds another practice Tuesday, I will pass on some more notes then.