Second team o-line coming together

Posted Aug 25, 2011 by Adam Adkins

Updated Aug 25, 2011 at 07:41 PM

Here is Thursday’s practice report from correspondent Michael Manganello:

What was a weakness on last year’s USF team, the second-string offensive line, is turning into a point of comfort for this year’s squad, due in part to the consistent play of tackle Damien Edwards, guard John McGhin and center Austin Reiter, among others.

(The second-string offensive line) was a weakness for us coming in and one of the biggest concerns we had coming into camp,” coach Skip Holtz said. “I think Damien Edwards is doing some very good things. Obviously, we came out of spring and you had John McGhin was on that two-deep, he’s still there. I talked about the emergence of Austin Reiter and that’s given us the opportunity to move (Kevin) McCaskill to guard, which gives us that much more stability as we’re trying to build it.”

McGhin, a redshirt sophomore, says the reserve line is in a much better position to help this season than it was last year.

“It’s been a thrill ride,” McGhin said. “Especially with the transition from last year to this year, we’ve improved dramatically, so hopefully this year we can help the first team, rotate in with them during games, give them breathers. ‘If one goes down,’ (offensive line) coach (Steve Shankweiler) says, ‘the next one pops in.’”

FINAL PRESEASON GAME: USF will hold its final scrimmage of the fall Friday as Holtz gets his final look at players in a game situation before the season opener.

“We’ll probably end up going about 100 plays, about what we have (in prior scrimmages),” Holtz said. “This is our last preseason game. This is the last time really we’re able to go at it really hard and get something out of it. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to break the format down at this point, but everybody will be in full pads.”

The team will then have Saturday off before entering a regular season game week beginning Sunday.

WALK-ON TRYOUTS HELD: Holtz spent the last 30 minutes of Thursday’s practice running a walk-on tryout session as he tries to fill out the roster.

“We did have walk-on tryouts at the end,” Holtz said. “I think there were about 50 young men that were trying out for probably about eight or 10 spots.”