|
With last season's 4-7 record behind them, head coach Denver Johnson
and the Redbirds started the building process for the 2008 season.
"It was a beautiful, sunny day to be out here," said Johnson. "Nice
temperatures, a little windy, but other than that a perfect day. The
team's attitude seems to be really good and the spirits are high.
We're excited to be out here."
After implementing some offensive plays, the Redbirds worked on
some special teams, including extra points. With Steven Fetzer,
Tyler Funk and Kevin Mazur handling the kicking duties, Warren
McCarty, Preston Earl and Bobby Kelsey each alternated putting down
the snap from Joe Doyle.
Later in practice, during the 7-on-7 drill, senior quarterback
Kevin Brockway completed five of his 11 pass attempts but was
intercepted by redshirt freshman Mark Martin. Sophomore Preston Earl
and redshirt freshman Drew Kiel each completed 4-of-7 passes, while
redshirt freshman Sam Donatucci was 2-for-3. Earl did throw an
interception when senior safety Tom Nelson leaped to pick off an
errant pass.
Redshirt freshman Cody White was the most popular target, with
three catches during the drill, while Garin Harcar and Kevett Mickle
each added two grabs.
Johnson worked thoroughly with the offensive linemen and assessed
the unit following practice.
[to top of second column] |
"We don't have a lot of bodies there, but I think we have some
talent," said Johnson. "It is hard to do too much with the guys
without any pads on, so (today) was really insertion and talking
about footwork, technique and mental focus."
First-year defensive coordinator David Ross began implementing
his defense Tuesday.
"We started our path to fixing some things (defensively) and
introduced some new concepts," said Ross. "We spent a lot of time
introducing some new drills, particularly tackling circuit drills,
take-away circuit drills and a new concept of pursuit drills to fit
with what we are doing defensively."
The Redbirds will continue to make strides in becoming
fundamentally sound Thursday, when the team takes the field in
shells for the second practice of the spring.
[Text from file received from Todd Kober,
assistant athletics director, media relations,
Illinois
State University] |
