North Carolina State University Athletics
2005 Preseason Diary, Day 11
8/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 12, 2005
The eighth preseason practice is in the books and it was an intense one. The coaches decided to move practice to the morning to try to avoid the worst of the heat, but I heard some of the players afterwards wondering if it could possibly have been any hotter in the afternoon.
I heard Coach Amato use one of his favorite phrases for the first time this preseason: "Loser's Limp." According to him, when players are hot and tired and suddenly develop an injury, many times it's just "Loser's Limp." ?But a couple of guys who have missed the last couple of practices with some small problems (Toney Baker, Octavius Darby) were back out there today.
After starting with four periods of live kicking, the team worked on individual drills. The boards were fairly uneventful today, but ended with Mario Williams and T.J. Williams squaring off. I have to say that it was a draw - they met in the middle with a crash and basically neither could budge the other until the coaches blew the whistle. ?I'd say that's a pretty good performance for both.
Martrel Brown had a couple of good stops during inside drill, one behind the line of scrimmage, and LeRue Rumph also had a big stop. Oliver Hoyte continued to look good and had a big tackle for loss. ?But the defense didn't win every time. Bobby Washington had a nice run, Jamelle Eugene took one straight up the middle and Baker scored virtually untouched.
While the heavy hitters were doing inside drill, the wideouts and the defensive backs went one-on-one. Kyle Newell and Geron James both had acrobatic catches with somebody in their faces. They are both so tall, they make good targets.
During 11-on-11, it went back and forth between the offense and defense. Jay Davis hit Tramain Hall down the sideline and the next play Manny Lawson got the sack on Jay (Well, it's not really a sack, since the quarterbacks aren't hit during practice. But once it's obvious that it would be a sack, they blow the play dead). Darrell Blackman had a nice run on the next play - he looked like he was going to be stopped behind the line of scrimmage, but he reversed field, cut the corner and had a big gain.. The defense then dominated the next play, when Levin Neal covered Brian Clark which led to an incompletion.
Practice ended with a period of goalline and Stephen Tulloch had a thunderous hit right in the middle to keep the offense out. On another play, Marcus Stone took it in for a score. Not sure if he would have scored if Manny Lawson had not had to change gears to keep from hitting him, but Marcus was running so hard when he crossed the goalline that he ended up in the bushes! While he was running, you could hear the coaches yelling to Manny, "Don't do it! ?Don't do it!" It's hard to turn that killer instinct off just because the guy with the ball is in a black jersey.
A.J. Davis got laughs from his teammates when he had a big stop on goalline and was so psyched up he started screaming, "They're scared of me! They're scared of me!" while running through offensive linemen who are about twice his size.
The team will have its first scrimmage tomorrow, working on kicking in the morning and then having a full scrimmage in the evening. Sunday, the team will be off of practice, but will have a full day with church, media interviews, pictures and then the Day of Champion competition and autograph session.
