It was another West Texas classic this afternoon, as winds blew upwards of 30 mph and dust filled the sky above the outdoor training field. Spring practice number nine is in the books for the Red Raiders, and afterward, I got a chance to hear from coach Marcel Yates and DB Dadrion Taylor about how the secondary is unfolding, who is running with the first team, and even a bit about the quarterback race...
Defensive back coach Marcel Yates is extremely pleased with how hard his guys have worked so far this spring. Kobee Minor, who appeared in 10 games last season, mostly as a member of the kickoff coverage, punt return, and punt units, has impressed Yates the most so far out of the young players.
On naming a spring MVP, Yates wants to wait until the season is finished and the Red Raiders have a winning record. "I need a bunch of MVPs right now, but they're all working hard. You have Reggie Pearson, Marquis Waters, Rayshad (Williams), Malik, Adrian Frye, all those guys are working. My group works hard. The thing that we're just trying to overcome is just being consistent every day. What I tried to tell them is, when you're a DB, you can't have a play-off, right? You can't say, my bad, or hand clap, because when you mess up, it's a touchdown."
Tyler Ownes, Marquis Waters, Reggie Pearson, Adrian Frye, Kosi Eldridge, and Dadrion Taylor are functioning the most as the first-team secondary heading into April 23rd's Spring Game. Eldridge will play both as a linebacker and safety this upcoming season after playing the majority of his snaps at linebacker and special teams last year.
Yates loves how effective the veteran group has been in leading the younger guys and is proud of how committed they are to improving themselves. "What I like is they want to be coached. As soon as we get done off the field, they're in a meeting room watching film. So just as a veteran group as far as studying the game and studying themselves, they do a good job of that. You know, they're there wanting to get better, you know, they want to be coached."
After Yates, Dadrion Taylor took the podium and had plenty to say about his role on the team, goals for the season, and who has impressed him.
"I'm coming out to my fourth season. So you know, I've started to get into the leader role, you know, taking over my room with some of the older guys we got."
Taylor mentioned one goal that he is zoning in on for the upcoming year. "I got the Jim Thorpe on my mind, that's what I want...you know, I write it down every day in my book. I want it."
Myles Price has been the WR that has challenged Taylor the most this spring. "Myles Price is gonna be big-time..I've been here a long time and I've seen some very good receivers come out of this league, and the thing about him is he's never satisfied. After practice. He's catching balls. He's doing everything to get better."
Interestingly enough, quarterback Behren Morton has impressed Taylor the most out of all the QBs. "I'm not gonna lie Behren Morton is kind of impressing me. When he gets the ball out, as soon as it leaves his hand, it's like you're blinking and it's in the receiver's hands or it's in my hands, you know?"
DB Marquis Waters shared the same sentiment after practice, "he throws some Pat Mahomes type passes. Tyler and Donovan obviously give us problems too because they have experience and they know what to do, but Behren has come a long way. He's making some great passes that make you think like okay, he can play."
The Red Raiders are back in action on Thursday for spring practice number ten.
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