North Carolina State University Athletics
Annabelle's Preseason Diary for Monday, August 11
8/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 11, 2003
When I pulled up at the practice facility this morning, it already sounded different. Full contact hits have a much different sound than the "thud" the team did last week. There was already some hard hitting going on out there in just the first full contact drill.
The team went out for a couple of hours this morning and then will have a slightly shorter workout this evening. The schedule is a good bit like what folks saw yesterday at Carter-Finley - individual drills combined with some team stuff. Now that they're really hitting, there will be much more team.
I watched a tackling drill between the linebackers and the running backs this morning and saw some pretty powerful hits, coming from the guys in white (defense) AND the guys in red (offense). Our linebackers are really an animated group. Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay and Pat Thomas both have very unique voices that you can usually hear above the chaos. The thing that stands out about those two guys to me is that they love to laugh and play around, but when they line up on that field, they are ALL business. When Freddie and Cotra Jackson met on the boards this morning, it sounded like a bolt of thunder. I'd be interested to see who the coaches would say won the battle - it looked to me like they hit in the middle and neither side budged until the whistle was blown.
Speaking of linebackers, Manny Lawson picked off a pass during 11-on-11 drills today. No one can ever believe that he's a linebacker - he looks more like a basketball center - but they change their minds when they see him hit!
Jerricho Cotchery is going to be out of practice for a little while. He sublexed (meaning it popped out and then back in) his shoulder during Saturday's workout and the sports medicine staff wants to make sure he's completely ready before he tries to come back. Coach Amato always talks about how tough Jerricho is - evidently after he hurt the shoulder he kept going through practice for a while, catching passes and everything before he told anyone. He HATES missing practice - you can look at him and tell how miserable he is when he's not out there competing.
Not that anyone can fill Jerricho's shoes, but we've got plenty of guys to take reps at wide receiver. You might remember that last year I wrote about Brian Clark making some really impressive catches in preseason camp - he's been the same this year.
Besides Jerricho, we've been pretty injury free in the first week of practice. Ernest Jones has been a little under the weather and we've had a pull here and a cramp there, but besides that, there have been no pink jerseys at practice. The guys that are too injured to go through conditioning at the end of practice have to go to treatment EARLY in the morning, so unless they're really injured, most of them suck it up and keep playing.
It's interesting to watch the different personalities of our coaches at practice. Coach Mike Barry, who came in this spring to coach the offensive linemen, is one of the most intense coaches out there. He really gets into it with his guys, getting fired up when they do well and when they make mistakes.
I heard so many of the players and coaches commenting on yesterday's crowd at the open practice. Even the media after practice today was talking about how unbelieveable it was that so many people came out in the rain to watch a practice. Not even a scrimmage, just a regular practice. I think it really got the players fired up and reminded them how exciting game days are at Carter-Finley.
If anything newsworthy happens tonight, I'll post more. If not, more tomorrow!
Diary, Day 1
Diary, Day 2
Diary, Day 3
Diary, Day 4
Diary, Day 5
