Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Spring Practice Around The ACC


The casualness with which Wake Forest approaches spring football is striking. Practices start at varying times, if at all. For the second straight season the Deacons didn't use all their 15 days allotted by the NCAA.

Some players are overweight. The coaches say they won't worry about the extra baggage until preseason practices begin in August.

Coach Jim Grobe is rarely on hand when practices do begin. He'll emerge from his office at some point, shake hands and exchange pleasantries with those fans who have dropped by and entertain any questions the media might have.(Thanks to Dan Collins, Winston-Salem Journal for info.)
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Judging by Saturday's spring game at Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels have solidified at least one thing over the past month of workouts: trust.

"I think they've started to see that if they do what we ask them to do, they can win," said UNC coach Butch Davis, who was hired in November to resurrect a program that hasn't posted a winning season since 2001. "... Their enthusiasm and their passion and their willingness to work has been a godsend. They have been as eager as any football team as I have been around to change what's happened in the past."(Thanks to Robbi Pickeral, News & Observer for info.)
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It’s hard to judge a book by its cover, and by looking at what took place in Saturday’s Annual Spring Game in Death Valley, the cover on Clemson’s linebacking corps doesn’t look bad, but it isn’t all that good.

Just like the Tigers’ two previous stadium scrimmages, no linebacker seemed to standout. There doesn’t seem to be that Jeff Davis, Anthony Simmons, Keith Adams or Leroy Hill type middle linebacker that has ball hawked across the surface of Memorial Stadium, seeking out and destroying anyone or anything in his way.(Thanks to Will Vandervort, Columbia State for info.)
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It was a neat ending to N.C. State's spring game, the way quarterback Daniel Evans marshalled the Red team downfield and to a 35-31 comeback win over the White on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.

The clincher came when he hit receiver Darrell Blackman on an 8-yard touchdown pass, culminating a clock-managed 65-yard drive. Moments earlier, that duo had combined for a 50-yard touchdown

"It was a good ending,'' said first-year Pack head coach Tom O'Brien, who observed from both sidelines. "If we compete the way we competed at the end, we're going to win some football games." (Thanks to A.J. Carr, News & Observer for info.)

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