Fall Camp Review

     Well fall camp was pretty hectic... As you can tell I didn't have much time to blog.  Here are a few random closing thoughts from fall camp:

     Red-shirting is always a big issue when it comes to the new guys.  Some think they can't contribute this year and want to make sure they won't "waste" a year on playing just a small amount or only on special teams.  You can tell by how they practice.  They don't try very hard and make sure not to beat anybody out for a position.  Also they usually make it well known that they want to red-shirt.  I can understand a little about how they are feeling, but if they do not try to earn a spot right now... they are giving up playing time in the future!  One of the main reasons I earned a starting spot after my red-shirt year was because I came into my first year working towards earning playing time.  I didn't care weather I red-shirted or not, and didn't worry about the depth at my position.  There were five senior safeties my first year and four other safeties that were older than me.  I just decided to work as hard as I could for playing time and let the coaches decide.  The coaches decided to red-shirt me, but I had made a strong first impression and a great bid for the spot next year just on my first fall camp alone.  Red-shirting was good for me because it gave me a chance to develop and really learn from the senior safeties.  It is also fun to have a small break from the stress and physical wear of playing on game days, and take a fans point of view and watch the games.  Also, this essentially gave me an extra year to work towards academics.  This is why players want to red-shirt... but being lazy and sloppy on the field is not the way to accomplish this.

     Times have changed since the harsh two-a-days that tried to whip players into shape after their long summer break of doing nothing.  Back in the old days, this fall training camp was to get players physically and mentally in shape.  After doing sometimes nothing the whole summer, athletes would be losing a lot of weight over these first few weeks.  Now, football is 24/7 for student-athletes.  We get a few weeks off in January and May, but other than that it is a full time job.  In the summer, we train extremely hard and come into fall camp in pretty good shape.  Since I have been here, training camps have seemed to get ever so slightly easier from year to year.  Maybe I'm just getting used to it!  However, also since I've been here the summer workouts have been getting a lot harder each year.  This being the case, i think that now training camps are not as focused as much on conditioning as they have been in the past... because we get this done in the summer.  We now can focus more on the X's and O's during training camp.  Training camp is still the reigning champ of the hardest time of the year though.

     My last training camp with Texas Tech is complete.  Even after all these years, it still surprises me how hard it is during these last three weeks.  This has been a great few weeks and I can't wait to step out on the field with my teammates.  All the work has been put in... now it is time to see the results

-Student of the Game