Morgan State football catches Lee Hull’s ire with uneven practice Tuesday morning

Tuesday’s morning practice under hazy and humid conditions did not go smoothly for Morgan State, and coach Lee Hull let the team know it.

During the Bears’ first full-team exercise, the offense committed four errors, including a botched handoff exchange that resulted in a defensive touchdown and misfired snaps in shotgun formation on back-to-back plays.

Later, several members of the offense and defense drew Hull’s wrath for not moving fast enough or not practicing with the appropriate amount of energy. It was enough for Hull to address the team’s lack of focus in his post-practice remarks to the players.

“I was displeased because they let the elements – the heat, they’re tired, it’s the second week, today’s our last double that we have, and we had a pretty tough practice yesterday – they let that get to them to where they were not focused and weren’t ready to practice,” he said. “That’s really what it was.”

It was an atypical display from Hull, who is usually very reserved. But Hull said the team’s troubles were also unusual.

“Yeah, it was uncharacteristic, but it happens in camp,” he said. “We’ve been here for two weeks, so you’re going to have days like this. This was probably only the second practice where I had to yell at them to get them going. I’ll take that. This is practice [No.] 13, so it’s one of those things. It’s camp and they’re feeling sorry for themselves right now. We as coaches have to push them through it.”

No one escaped Hull’s attention. Hull got after junior Herb Walker Jr., chewing out the standout running back for the fumbled handoff exchange with redshirt senior quarterback Moses Skillon and then ordering Walker off the field twice before running a play during 7-on-7 drills.

“He’s one of the leaders,” Hull explained. “He’s getting all the accolades right now. So everybody’s going to feed off of him, and if he’s not practicing well and feeling sorry for himself, everybody else is. So, I had to jump him to get him going.”

Other notes and observations:

**The defense outplayed the offense for most of the practice. Redshirt junior defensive end Andrew Mitchell scooped up the fumbled handoff between Skillon and Walker and walked into the end zone with the ball. Redshirt sophomore cornerback Cravon Rogers Jr. stepped in front of a pass from redshirt senior quarterback Seth Higgins intended for redshirt sophomore wide receiver Amonta Poteat and returned it for another score. Mitchell and redshirt senior linebacker Bill Hill each tipped a pass, and freshman linebacker Mike Gaynor Jr. sacked Higgins. Hull said the defense is responding well to first-year defensive coordinator Mike Fanoga.

“The defense is playing well,” Hull said. “They’re fast, athletic, they believe in Coach Fanoga’s philosophy, his defensive schemes that they’re running. I can tell the difference. They’re a very confident group, all of them, and they’re playing fast. That’s what I want.”

**As dominating as the defense was, the offense ended the session on a high note. On fourth-and-17 from the unit’s 48-yard line, Skillon spotted redshirt sophomore Landen Malbrough sprinting alone along the left sideline and lofted a bomb that the wide receiver caught in the end zone. Equally surprising was that Hull called out Malbrough, who got open because a safety jumped on an inside route run by Poteat, to break free from a jam at the line of scrimmage almost as soon as the ball was snapped to Skillon.

“I could see the coverage, and I know what he should have done on the route,” Hull said with a grin. “He did a great job, ran a great route, Moses got the ball to him, and he made the catch and made the touchdown. Landen’s been doing a great job so far this camp, and so are [redshirt junior] Thomas Martin and [redshirt senior] Andrew King.

“Our receivers are starting to gel a little bit with Moses. They’re still very young. They’re all sophomores and juniors except for AK. So, it’s a learning process. But we look forward to some of those young guys stepping forward and making big plays like that.”

**Tuesday is the last day that Morgan State will practice twice in one day. Hull said he anticipates that the players will put forth a better effort in the evening session than they did in the morning.

“They’ll bounce back tonight,” he said. “They understand what’s at stake and stuff, and we’ll see. We’ve got to really count on our seniors and our captains to be leaders to those guys and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to come out with our minds set on a better practice because today wasn’t good.’ So, we’ll see what our leadership is like tonight.”