NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion University football held its third practice of fall camp on Wednesday morning and its first practice wearing shoulder pads.
The practice featured pads popping for the first time as the offensive and defensive lines squared off in one-on-one run blocking drills while participating in one-on-one rush drills later in practice. Practice also featured 11-on-11 team drills and 7-on-7 with the wide receivers, running backs, linebackers and defensive backs.
On the defensive side of the ball, linebackers D.J. Simon and Malique Johnson were in on several tackles while safety Justice Davila had the only interception of the day.
The offensive side also had some notable plays throughout the morning practice. The running backs had a solid day as Gerard Johnson and Ray Lawry had several strong runs while Cam Boyd caught a touchdown pass out of the backfield from Taylor Heinicke.
Comments from Coach Wilder:
“It was great to finally get the pads back on. NCAA rules mandates that the first two practices are helmets only.
On the offensive line: “There are a lot of new faces in there, and a lot of new guys that got a lot of work in the spring which was good for us but I feel good about it. We’ve got eight guys returning that have played and some new guys that are competing to get on the bus to make the travel roster.”
On special teams: “Today’s focus was to work on the kickoff team and you mentioned Jarod Brown graduating, an outstanding football player. At kicker I’m really excited with Ricky Segers. He played two years ago at Georgia State when Jarod got hurt and he burned his redshirt. He was able to redshirt last year so he is a sophomore with three years to go. He’s looked really good here in camp. He has looked good with the PAT unit and again today with our kickoff group.”