NelsonO has this excellent report from Day 6 of spring practice:
Forget the shotgun. During today’s 11-on-11 drill, the QBs took snaps from under center exclusively. And for the curious, the offensive linemen are not in a three-point stance even with the QB under center. I’m happy to report that the offense is actually running the ball during practice.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that the entire team participates in the warm-ups and stretching at the beginning of practice. Even the Iceman was stretching with the team this morning. Last year, not everybody joined the morning stretching.
Wright-Jackson and Libre are the “co-starters” at running back or at least they have gotten most reps at running back so far. Mario Cox appears to be the third guy at this point. Newcomer Jake Heun can really hit; he hits like a guy on defense.
Hansen at center and Kia at left tackle were running with the first team today. A lot of rotating the offensive linemen in and out, but the second group this morning appeared to be Hisatake and Thomas at the tackles, Ginlack and Ieru at the guards, and Lefiti at center.
During the one-on-ones, I thought defensive tackle Tuika Tufaga had a nice session today. And of course David Veikune always looks good in the one-on-ones. Veikune has the nice blend of quickness and strength.
Making a move up the depth chart are safety Mana Silva and defensive end Alasi Toilolo.
Best catch of the day belonged to slotback Mike Washington who made a diving catch over the middle.
Coach Aranda is a great teacher. I never thought there was too much to the rip and jab techniques; that is, until Coach Aranda breaks it down.
Former defensive lineman Amani Purcell observed practice today.
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In addition, Dave Reardon and Stephen Tsai had reports on their respective blogs. Reardon reports that Blaze Soares may be out for the rest of spring practice.
Starting linebacker Blaze Soares said he doesn’t expect to put on the pads again this spring because of concerns with his shoulder injury from last season.
“Probably,” Soares answered at today’s practice when asked if he would be out the remaining 9 spring practices. “No sense make anything worse.”