North Carolina State University Athletics
Annabelle's Preseason Diary - Day 3
8/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 7, 2003
Today, the team got the heat that is typical of preseason camp. The only cool place on the field is in the tower, where the video folks set up their cameras and under the tents, where the team goes for frequent breaks on a day like today. Nobody seemed to be too bothered by the heat, however. It looked like almost the entire team went through the post-practice conditioning.
The players put on shoulder pads for the first time today, but will continue to "thud" until Monday, when they begin full contact. Today also marked the first appearance of the board drills. I don't know what it says about our team that I can't figure out who's winning the boards any more - offense or defense. Looks to me like most of the battles are pretty even. I did see offensive lineman Ricky Fowler drive a couple of defensive tackles back off the boards this afternoon. Guess he's using his skills as a wrestler. (For those who have forgotten, the board drills are when an offensive and defensive player face each other with a board running between their feet. When the whistle is blown, they meet in the middle and try to drive each other back off the board).
Two words that I keep hearing Coach Amato bring up to the team are "INTENSITY" and "COMPLACENCY." He has praised the team's intensity over the first few days of practice, but continues to warn them about getting complacent.
After practice, the team ran dreaded gassers, but were rewarded by only having to run three instead of the four that they had expected to run. In all, the practice ran about two hours, not including breaks. The last period of practice was "perfect play". For the defense this is a pursuit drill, when they all run as hard and fast as they can at the proper pursuit angle for their position. On offense, it really is trying to execute a perfect play - with everybody in the right spot.
After practice, I asked Coach Amato who he thought had stood out today. He said that he hated to keep bringing up Tramain Hall, but I assured him that none of the diary readers would mind! He praised Tramain and Richard Washington, saying they both had "another" good day.
He also said that as a group, the freshmen had really caught his eye. "They're everything we thought they would be," he said. "We don't know how long it will take them to come around and be ready to play, but when they are, look out." He also added that rookie quarterback Marcus Stone "has a cannon for an arm."
Coach also praised the intensity on a drill between the quarterbacks, wide receivers and cornerbacks. It's a last play of the game, game-on-the-line drill when the quarterback has to put it up, the wide receiver has to catch it and the DB has to make the play. "They competed and competed and competed. It was a heckova drill."
I don't know if you have all gotten a chance to check out the new website that we launched for Philip this week: www.philiprivers.com. I talked to our designer today and he said the number of "hits" to the site have been unbelieveable ("in the tens of thousands"). Over 500 people have sent e-mails - a great response, but I hope every one realizes that there is no way Philip will have a chance to answer them all!
More tomorrow afternoon.
