Foreigner
once sang... "Head knocker, head knocker coming on strong a real show
stopper...” Today at the Lobo Football Practice Complex as the
true
"head knockers" continued their rise to claim starting roles on this
years 'Pack, the lyrics of another Foreigner song, "Urgent",
rang in my ears.
Showstoppers
are a coach’s dream and sometimes come in the most unassuming forms.
More on
that later, as the last two-a-day practice wound to an end, the
coaching
staff made sure they had everyone's attention by running full pad, full
go
scrimmage in the 6th hour of actual practice and who knows how many
classroom
hours to prepare for today's long march.
This dance can get painful!
After
practice, as the team gathered, Coach Locksley complimented the team on
pushing
through and maximizing practice time by saying, "You can come out here
and
just try to last for 2 hours but that is not what championship effort
is about.
I appreciate how hard you are working and your focus today, but it
has to
continue and accelerate the pace to be a true winner. Let's do that
tomorrow."
For
Carmen Messina Click
Here
For Coach Mallory Click Here
Defensive head
knockers that stood out to me were numerous and included the usual
suspects and
one you would never think. He is whom I alluded to earlier in this
piece and is
my "Head knocker" award winner for today; Trey Hardaway? Good guess,
but no. Clint "Killer" McPeek? Again, good guess and thanks for
playing but...NOOOO! How about Frankie Solomon? What, you say? WHAT? 5'
10" 185lbs Frankie Solomon? But it was true as he showed that he
is
one tough guy, stepping up to stuff the run time and again. Plus he
broke up
two (that I saw) sure TD's with great body control and a strong hand to
strip
away the rock. He has a sense of where the play is going and is quick
as a cat
to react. You never want to take a player like that for granted, that's
for
sure. Bubba Forrest who caused an interception by tipping a pass turned
in
another strong practice and keeping it alive for corner Edrick Boger to
tuck
away for the Cherry clad defenders. A little whooping it up for
the D!
Boger
makes the tackle
The
offense of course struck back later in the practice and continued
to show
that it will be diverse and run a lot of formations and plays. Donovan
continued his stranglehold on the starting job with another focused
practice.
He looks so far removed from the injury and has a great presence in the
huddle,
and, as he goes through the mundane drill after drill, after drill...
As
the team prepares for this Saturday’s scrimmage, which is said to
determine the
depth chart going into the first test at College Station, Texas, I
caught up
with freshman surprise Kasey Carrier, defensive stalwart Carmen Messina
and the
mastermind of mayhem, Defensive Coordinator Doug Mallory. ! 8
days till
kickoff. I can almost smell the tailgate charcoal! Head knocker, head
knocker...coming on strong