North Carolina State University Athletics
The Norris Notebook: Intensity and Effort
8/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
The catch phrase of the day was “effort” as the team had practice number nine during a hot morning session. Coach Amato and his staff preached intensity at practice throughout, and they talked in length about the amount of effort the team would need to be successful. The team hustled to the first period of practice and ran nine plays of 11 on 11 to start the scrimmage. The Marcus Stone to Darrell Blackman connection was visited frequently with positive results.
Once the team split into position-by-position drills, the defense worked on tackling to start. One drill that I witnessed is for the defensive backs where they plant and lift a teammate into the air as they work on leverage and taking the correct angle towards the offensive player.
The wide receivers worked on getting off of the line of scrimmage when being jammed, by punching a bag then running the route and making a play. The group is physically very talented, with their “captain” Lamart Barrett leading the way in most of the drills with John Dunlap and Blackman also showing the freshmen how to compete. The freshmen are certainly holding their own at every position on this team so far.
After another period of board drills and inside drill, the team finished the practice with more 11 on 11 and goalline. Toney Baker had a huge run during the period, exploding through the line and accelerating up field. Quite impressive.
Jamelle Eugene also found chunks of yardage late in practice as he danced his way to some nice runs.
The defense won the four plays of goalline by making three stops, including a big hit from Reggie Davis on Toney Baker in the hole from one yard out. Baker did score the only touchdown for the offense on the third play by beating the defense to the pylon.
As the team huddled around Amato for his post practice speech, Brandon Yopp from our office herded the media in the gates to get the list of interview requests. Today was an easy haul with only a handful of names (thanks to media day filling most needs yesterday). The Wolfpacker talked to both DaJuan and DeAndre Morgan, and Audi Augustin had his first post practice interview as well. Barrett (who is completing an internship in our office) also did an interview after getting praise from Amato for being like another coach on the field for the offense.
The team ran their gassers for conditioning like usual, and Michael Vassil was out to prove that he is the best conditioned of the offensive lineman after I reported him losing a sprint to Curtis Crouch earlier this fall. And true to his word, Vassil finished both gassers ahead of his teammates, though he did cough and spit out his water after the run. I guess at 20 years old he hasn’t figured out how to drink out of a water bottle yet!
I will have more tomorrow as the team will have their first two-a-day on Tuesday.
Once the team split into position-by-position drills, the defense worked on tackling to start. One drill that I witnessed is for the defensive backs where they plant and lift a teammate into the air as they work on leverage and taking the correct angle towards the offensive player.
The wide receivers worked on getting off of the line of scrimmage when being jammed, by punching a bag then running the route and making a play. The group is physically very talented, with their “captain” Lamart Barrett leading the way in most of the drills with John Dunlap and Blackman also showing the freshmen how to compete. The freshmen are certainly holding their own at every position on this team so far.
After another period of board drills and inside drill, the team finished the practice with more 11 on 11 and goalline. Toney Baker had a huge run during the period, exploding through the line and accelerating up field. Quite impressive.
Jamelle Eugene also found chunks of yardage late in practice as he danced his way to some nice runs.
The defense won the four plays of goalline by making three stops, including a big hit from Reggie Davis on Toney Baker in the hole from one yard out. Baker did score the only touchdown for the offense on the third play by beating the defense to the pylon.
As the team huddled around Amato for his post practice speech, Brandon Yopp from our office herded the media in the gates to get the list of interview requests. Today was an easy haul with only a handful of names (thanks to media day filling most needs yesterday). The Wolfpacker talked to both DaJuan and DeAndre Morgan, and Audi Augustin had his first post practice interview as well. Barrett (who is completing an internship in our office) also did an interview after getting praise from Amato for being like another coach on the field for the offense.
The team ran their gassers for conditioning like usual, and Michael Vassil was out to prove that he is the best conditioned of the offensive lineman after I reported him losing a sprint to Curtis Crouch earlier this fall. And true to his word, Vassil finished both gassers ahead of his teammates, though he did cough and spit out his water after the run. I guess at 20 years old he hasn’t figured out how to drink out of a water bottle yet!
I will have more tomorrow as the team will have their first two-a-day on Tuesday.
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