Aug. 19, 2004
I've been slacking off a little bit on my diary entries. There's so much going on around here these days that I just haven't had time. Classes started yesterday, so in addition to the parking lots being completely full, all of our student-athletes are back on campus. My office is in Reynolds, right around the corner from the academic support offices - it's so easy to spot the freshmen trying to find their advisors. They look pretty lost (and pretty young!).
Soccer is practicing, volleyball is practicing, cross country is practicing and all the other sports are meeting and getting prepared for the upcoming year. The men's basketball team did their yearly mile run before classes on Wednesday - I finally met Gavin Grant, our freshman from Julius Hodge's high school. Everybody is going to really love the new players on that team - Gavin, Andrew Brackman, Cedric Simmons and Braxton Albritton. And I think everybody is really going to enjoy getting to know (and watch) Tony Bethel as well.
Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, FOOTBALL! After Monday's physical scrimmage, Tuesday was a two-a-day and by the second practice, those guys were really tired. They were in full pads that night and once again had some pretty physical plays during goalline. Goalline is such a competitive drill. The offense is on the sideline down toward the goalline and the defense stands in the endzone and there is always a bunch of talk going back and forth. As Coach Amato says, the defense SHOULD dominate on goalline (the offense is supposed to run, not pass, during those drills), but when the offense does score, they just go crazy. Darrell Blackman had a `walk-in' during yesterday's goalline drills and the offense went nuts (`walk-ins' also mean extra gassers for the defense).
Tramain Hall has joined Richard Washington as the goalline entertainment. He made sure that the defense (particularly Freddie Aughtry-Lindsday) remembered this year's motto during Tuesday's drills. ("Discipline, Freddie, discipline! You've got to learn some discipline!")
Yesterday, we were back on the regular in-season schedule because of classes beginning, with a two-hour workout in the afternoon. Lightning strikes hitting close to the stadium forced everybody under the shelter for about 20 minutes, but then they finished up workouts. I was studying our defensive secondary yesterday and trying to remember when we have had so much depth there. We very likely could start four seniors back there - Andre Maddox, Troy Graham, Lamont Reid and Dovonte Edwards. I went back through media guides a dozen years back and couldn't find a time when we opened the season starting more than two seniors in the secondary. If anybody can remember the last time we had four, drop me an e-mail. But in addition to those guys, you've got Marcus Hudson, A.J. Davis, Garland Heath, J.J. Jones - all guys with great experience. Then you add Miguel Scott (who throws his body around diving after balls and to make tackles, etc. He's so athletic), Third Sutton, Phillip Holloman, Jeremy Gray ... there are some really talented players back there.
Johnny Evans, our former All-American who now works for our radio network, has always come to practices (he also works with the FCA here in North Carolina). This year, he's got some extra incentive to watch, as both of his sons (two of the four quadruplets) are playing for the Pack. In Monday's scrimmage, Daniel and Andrew were in at the same time (Daniel at quarterback and Andrew at halfback). Then you've got John Ritcher doing well at tight end - it means so much to our coaching staff to have the sons of former players coming back to play.
Reggie Davis and T.A. McLendon are still sitting out. Reggie's hamstring pull was pretty severe, but Coach says that T.A.'s isn't bad. T.A. Williams is doing everything except the full contact work - I think he'll start doing everything next week. It's terrible to see Kalani Heppe on crutches - Leroy Harris and Luke Lathan have been working at center.
Regular practice is scheduled for today and tomorrow and then they'll have a kicking scrimmage on Saturday morning and a regular scrimmage on Saturday night. I can't believe it's only two weeks until the opener.
It's been great to hear from some of you with questions about the team. I'm glad that everybody understands that there are obviously some things I can't include in these updates. I think Rob D'Amato, a State alum living in the Czech Republic, takes the prize for the long distance diary reader!
