Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to the
Views and Personal Photos on the Vikes from the Inaugural Hall of Fame fan.
Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to the
Well, it was cold. Very cold. Upper 40s and I swear it was going to start snowing at any time. But then, I had Fred Smoot's mouth to keep me warm. More on that later.
On Friday, I attended the very first session of the 2005 Vikings Mini Camp. And I'm here to tell you that the Top 5 defensive ranking that Darren Sharper spoke of today does not seem so far fetched. As I witnessed the 1st-base defense, as defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell calls his defensive starters, in action for much of the practice.
Since I took well over 300 photos, what I am going to do over the coming days is break down each unit for you and then post the best photos I have for each unit. The photos are uploaded at a 640x480 resolution which are good for a 4x6 print. If you really, really love one of the photos you can e-mail me directly and I will send you 1536x1024 resolution photo which are good for 8x10 prints.
And if you want to use a photo on your own personal site...I simply ask that you credit me and my Vikings Underground web blog.
Vikings coach Mike Tice underwent surgery this week on an ankle that has been giving him a lot of problems so he was riding around in a golf cart and sporting a purple cast.
He was driving the golf cart all over the various practice fields. He stopped frequently to make notes, bark at someone, or flash a friendly grin. Towards the end of practice, he walked on crutches to supervise the scrimmage.
Also watching intently was Scott Studwell, fresh off the 2005 NFL draft. No doubt he wanted to see how his draft picks were performing. He need not worry.
Tice was more comfortable leading the practice this year compared to years past. Whether that can be directly related to the depature of Randy Moss or not, only time will tell. Tice still was smiling and telling jokes...especially with Kevin Williams and Pat Williams...but he was also much more in control. He often stopped scrimmage to insert a rookie to see how the rook would fare. I actually thought that Tice has matured more as a coach than I have ever seen before.
Later this evening I will have my first position review and will follow that with another one Saturday morning. So bookmark the site and come back. And be sure to leave a COMMENT below if you have a specific question you would like to ask me and I'll reply using the COMMENTS field.
You're going to like what you will see and read in the next few days.
Posted by maasx003 at April 29, 2005 2:49 PMDid it appear as if the new players on D had been studying the system or was it a lot of basic - here's where you line up.
I have always thought that these mini-camps are much more system oriented than skill oriented. I am surprised to see a scrimmage at this point. How did that work?
Posted by: J. Lichty at April 29, 2005 4:33 PMJL: Yes, in year's past I would have heard a coach screaming at someone to get in position. I only heard that once this morning at that was because Napoleon Harris went too wide into coverage.
When I said scrimmage, it was O vs. D but no tackling was allowed. Plays were run. But not a game-simulated scrimmage.
Posted by: Brian Maas at April 29, 2005 5:03 PMThanks for the reports!
How does Williamson look in the limited routes he's running in this Mini-camp?
Posted by: Rich at April 30, 2005 5:17 PMThanks for all your hard work "scouting." This is something I look forward to. I live in Cameron, Mo.; 50 miles north of KC. MOved here25 years ago but remain true to Vikes. Question: Which of the rookies looked really good to you? I am especially interested in the unsigned free agents in this regard. I used to enjoy looking for the "rubies" when visiting training camp. Thanks again for sharing. Don
Posted by: D Stevens at May 1, 2005 9:23 AM