Friday, August 08, 2008

Daily Cal: Fall Camp Notebook: Day Four

Riley Logs Time With First Team

By Andrew Kim

Day four proceeded with a couple marquee names sitting out the bulk of practice, including tailback Shane Vereen and cornerback Syd'Quan Thompson, who like yesterday, left after the first few sessions to do homework. Quarterback Kevin Riley primarily saw action alongside the first team today and flourished early during 11-on-11s, tossing consecutive completions to Michael Calvin and Nyan Boateng toward the left and right sidelines, respectively. He threw catchable balls in other instances, but neither was hauled in.

In between those reps, Riley also ran a play-action keeper around the right tackle and gained a handful of yards before meeting a gang of would-be tacklers.

Senior Nate Longshore went about business with the second team, whose pass protection isn't yet as polished the first's. He was sacked twice to linebackers Matt Russi and Devin Bishop on subsequent plays, but in a later set of drills, he lined a floater to tight end Tad Smith for a long gain.

"He was just fine," coach Jeff Tedford said of Longshore's day. "He did a lot of great things today, made some great calls at the line of scrimmage and did a lot of good things."   Riley, meanwhile, was also tagged a couple times in the pocket, with linebackers Eddie Young and Zack Follett getting to the quarterback on subsequent downs. Follett, who was one of the many defenders wrongfooted during a run by Jahvid Best earlier in the same set, bounced back with a near-interception the very next play.

In the final play of his last 11-on-11 set, Riley darted a TD toss to Boateng, who comfortably pulled in the pass in-stride.  Two touted freshmen, cornerback Marc Anthony and wideout Marvin Jones went head-to-head a few times during practice. Jones continued to play well, while Anthony posted his first fall camp interception. Defensive tackle Derrick Hill look like a man on a mission during 1-on-1 drills between the linemen.

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