Tequilla
Active poster
Naijiel Hale not at practice this week.... Not surprising, quite honestly.
I've heard rumors for a while that Hale would be selling the couch at some point ... not surprising that he's out at least the first week (at least).
Don't imagine that the coaches want him in practice if he doesn't want to be there or is undecided ... best to be decided one way or another.
Everybody needs to be pulling the same rope in the same direction.
Reasons?
The most common reasons that I've heard were fit and playing time. When you factor in that Jones passed him last year and you have to think that not only will Kelly be ahead of him if healthy, but we're continuing to recruit better DBs, Hale's seeing writing on the wall that he's at risk of being passed sooner than later. Given that he didn't redshirt, may not be such a bad problem for him.
I have a hard time getting the play out of my head against UCLA where Hale/Baker got beat deep and Hale stopped on the play when he realized he got burned and started yelling at Baker. Can't imagine that that sat well with the coaches. It's one thing to get on somebody for blowing a play or coverage, but do that on the sideline ... not on the field while the play is still going.