MOBILE, Ala. -- The 2012 Senior Bowl practice kicked off on the second day with the North team practicing in the morning session. The sessions began with some special teams drills and saw N.C. State wide receiver T.J. Graham muff a punt and then fumble a punt a few attempts later when he was trying to pick up some yards on the return. In the drills, Wisconsin punter Brad Nortman boomed his kicks and routinely got quite a bit of hang time, garnering him some attention from a few scouts after practice.
On the offensive side of the football, Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore rebounded a bit from a really rough outing the day before. Moore still struggled to put some velocity on the football, but this was a known issue. Moore seemed to the football out early on Tuesday morning in anticipation unlike the day before. Russell Wilson also rebounded a bit from yesterday, getting better as the day went on. Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins however really came back to earth on Tuesday morning. Cousins opted to check down often and seemed to just blindly throw some of his deeper passes without setting his feet when he was pressured in full team drills.
As for the wide receivers, Iowa receiver Marvin McNutt really put on a show for the NFL scouts. McNutt isn't going to run past many defensive backs and didn't on Tuesday morning, but he did display the ability to box out with his body and pluck the football from the air with his hands. Cal wide receiver Marvin Jones took a step back from the day before, but was still very solid. Ohio State's DeVier Posey just doesn't catch the football naturally and fought with the ball, often letting it get into his body instead of catching it with his hands. Brian Quick, the wide receiver from Appalachian State has caught the eye of a lot of scouts and looked much better on Tuesday than he did on Monday, but you can tell he's still a bit overwhelmed with the step up in competition. He still struggled catching the football and isn't very quick (no pun intended), but he builds speed and has great size. Quick admitted after practice yesterday to reporters that he's never really had a wide receivers coach before, but he has that upside teams like.
On the defensive side of the football, Virginia's Cam Johnson and Michigan's Mike Martindisplayed some nice ability to beat offensive lineman in one on one pass rushing drills. On one particular play against Ohio State tackle Mike Adams, Johnson initially took the outside, but quickly swam over and cut inside beating Adams badly as Adams didn't even really get a hand on him. Martin on the other had had some battles with Ohio State center Mike Brewster. Most everyone else Brewster stood up and didn't budge, but the two former college rivals battled multiple times with Martin winning most of the battles and driving Brewster backwards leaving the two to get into a bit after the play. Another player on the defensive line who had a very good day was defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu. Ta'amu is huge at 6-foot-2 and 341 pounds. Often Ta'amu would just over power the interior lineman and blow up running plays in the backfield. Connecticut defensive lineman Kendall Reyeshas generated a lot of interest from scouts and showed why in pass rushing drills, dipping his shoulder and clubbing the offensive lineman's hands off of him to get to the "quarterback" cone in the drill.
Boise State safety George Iloka has turned some heads as well and not just because of his size at 6-foot-3 and 222 pounds. Iloka moves very well for a safety that size and even picked off Kirk Cousins when Cousins tried to force a ball into a window as he was pressured by new addition Derek Wolfe. Marshall defensive end Vinny Curry gets low when he comes off the edge, but looks a bit stiff at times and doesn't really seem to have a wide array of pass rush moves. On one play against Iowa State offensive tackle Kelechi Osemele, Curry tried to spin to the inside but Osemele locked him up and stoned his rush move.