Irish head coach Charlie Weis was working directly with the wide receivers during one of the earlier individual periods. He spent a couple minutes going over a route with Golden Tate and how to improve it. Later he headed over and gave instruction to the tight ends.
WR Michael Floyd looked sharp going through the drills. His timing with QB Jimmy Clausen didn’t miss a beat. How involved he is this weekend will depend on how he responds to taking on contact at practice. Post-practice, receivers coach Rob Ianello said that Floyd was banged with the shields and he wasn’t limited during the team portion of practice.
Floyd is excited and eager to be back. The coaches had no doubt that he would want to return after being cleared by the medical staff. He wouldn’t have been cleared if it wasn’t safe for him to be on the field.
WR John Goodman trained at both quarterback and wide receiver. After working on some drop backs and handing off the ball to the running backs, he headed over to run routes with the quarterbacks and receivers.
Goodman said during post-practice interviews the he feels being under center comes natural to him. If a situation arose where he’d need to play, he feels he’s ready to go.
“Okay, Goodie,” Clausen said to Goodman after executing a handoff in the individual period.
QB Evan Sharpley took an injured Dayne Crist’s spot in the passing drill and was throwing a good ball. It didn’t have the same level of zip and spot on accuracy as Clausen’s, but the majority of them were tight spirals and hitting the receivers in stride.
The running backs worked on pass protection after they split from the quarterbacks.
Jonas Gray had great hand placement and kept his feet moving to keep the defender out of the pocket.
Theo Riddick was knocked back aggressively and quickly told his coach, “My fault.”
“No (crap) it’s your fault,” his coach quickly responded. “Thanks for telling me, though.”
Riddick was able to stand his ground better on the second rep against the 5-foot-11, 238-pound walk-on fullback Mike Narvaez, who outweighs the freshman tailback by more than 40 pounds.
Cierre Wood lowered his head too much while anticipating the contact and the rusher was able to go around him.
Game Prediction
There’s one characteristic about Navy’s team that never goes under questioning – heart.
This game will be more about the defensive players reading their keys than outmatching the Midshipmen athletically. Offensively, they’re facing a squad with a similar “never say die” attitude that’s going to give maximum effort.
It will be a hard-fought time possession game, but the Irish prevail in the end.
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