Thursday voluntary workout notes
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:45 pmMade it in time to catch the seven-on-seven drills in Thursday's voluntary workout, which is a good thing because there was very little to see in the way of running afterward. The seven-on-seven part wasn't very long, either, as the players cut short the session in order to go inside and work on their core strength before doing some sprint work afterward. Some notes:
• Three alums were in attendance for the seven-on-seven drills (the linemen stayed inside and lifted weights): Washington Redskin WR Aldrick Robinson, CB Sterling Moore and LB Youri Yenga.
• New secret weapon? No, but before the seven-on-seven drills started, some players were giving LB Kevin Pope a hard time about comments he made about his multiple skills; at 1A Mount Enterprise (Texas) High School, Pope played a number of positions on offense, defense and special teams. Pope started talking about his prowess ... as a punter. A few teammates questioned challenged his claims that he could punt a ball 50 yards, so Pope retreated to midfield. His first effort squibbed off the side of his foot and went only 32 yards, drawing a chorus from his teammates who felt justified in their skepticism. Unfazed, Pope retreated to midfield again and launched a perfect spiral 58 yards, silencing his teammates. For good measure, Pope punted a third time from the 50-yard line and hit another that landed right on the goal line.
• Richard Crawford, who will be a senior in the fall, is all but guaranteed one of the starting CB spots, but started slowly Thursday, dropping a sure interception when he jumped in front of WR Steve McCormack and had a pass hit him right in the chest. Moments later, Crawford simply got beaten by a good player making a good play, when QB Kyle Padron fired a 25-yard strike into the right side of the end zone and WR Keenan Holman outjumped Crawford for the high pass. (To be fair, I didn't see Crawford give up another completion for the rest of the afternoon.)
• McCormack got caught flat-footed on the pass Crawford should have picked off, but responded nicely on the next drive. QB J.J. McDermott found McCormack on back-to-back plays — first on a crossing route over the middle and then on a soft deep ball over CB Chris Parks in the end zone.
• McDermott started fast, completing his first five passes, before hitting a cold stretch. A pass into the end zone was dropped by WR Brad Haynes, who had three defenders swatting at the ball, and the next pass sailed over Haynes' head. One play later, McDermott looked for an open target before firing a shallow sideline pass that was intercepted and "returned" by CB Chris Castro.
• Randall Joyner was moved from safety to linebacker shortly after his arrival on campus last year, and showed flashes of his DB skills when he jumped up to snag a pass over the middle from QB Steve Kaiser.
• One of the players who looks visibly different from last season is LB Taylor Reed, who has put on a solid 15 pounds over his 2010 listed playing weight of 215 pounds. Reed said he now weighs 230 pounds, the weight at which he hopes to play in 2011. In order to carry that weight during the season, he said he plans to add a few more pounds in the weight room, under the assumption that he will run off a little weight when the Ponies convene in August for preseason camp.
• CB Daren Kitchen is one of just three true freshmen working with his new teammates (freshmen don't report until next week), along with NT Rishaad Wimbley and OL Taylor Lasecki. Some freshmen can get intimidated when they first move up to the college level, but thus far, Kitchen seems to carry himself with a little swagger, and has caught the eye of at least a couple of teammates, one of whom hailed Kitchen's size, long arms, ball skills and quickness.
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Caught up with OL Taylor Lasecki after the workout to find out about how he has overhauled his physique over the last couple of years. As a sophomore, Lasecki said he was "250 or 260" pounds. He started playing his junior season at 260 but dropped to 240 over the course of the season. As he matured and continued to work out, he got up to about 285 pounds for his senior season at Frisco High School, and now is up to "around 300" (he said he weighed in before Thursday's workout at 299 pounds; after working out — and drinking a lot of water — he was up to 303.
Lasecki said his increased bulk is due in part to the natural physical maturation of players his age, persistent work in the weight room ... and eating.
"I eat what I have normally eaten," he said. "If I get too heavy, I watch what I eat, but I eat pretty normally. I just work out a lot and I'm growing."
After he signed his national letter of intent with the Mustangs in February, Lasecki stopped working out with his teammates at Frisco HS.
"I got the (conditioning) packet from SMU and started working out on my own," Lasecki said. "(The SMU workout) is a little different from the lifting we did in high school. There are more Olympic lifts, like the snatch (in which a barbell is lifted from the floor and raised overhead with the arms fully extended, all in one motion)."
Having passed his SMU physical, Lasecki comes down from Frisco every day to work out with his new teammates and the Mustangs' strength and conditioning staff. The workouts, he said, are designed to build more than just strength.
"Some of it is about improving flexibility, too," he said. "In a lift like the hang clean (in which a barbell rests in front of the lifter's waist before being raised up until it rests across the front of the shoulders), it's not just about getting the weight up. They talk about letting the weight come back toward your chest, so the wrists get more flexible, or even bending your fingers back, too. You've got to be strong, but you've got to be able to move and use that strength, too."
• Three alums were in attendance for the seven-on-seven drills (the linemen stayed inside and lifted weights): Washington Redskin WR Aldrick Robinson, CB Sterling Moore and LB Youri Yenga.
• New secret weapon? No, but before the seven-on-seven drills started, some players were giving LB Kevin Pope a hard time about comments he made about his multiple skills; at 1A Mount Enterprise (Texas) High School, Pope played a number of positions on offense, defense and special teams. Pope started talking about his prowess ... as a punter. A few teammates questioned challenged his claims that he could punt a ball 50 yards, so Pope retreated to midfield. His first effort squibbed off the side of his foot and went only 32 yards, drawing a chorus from his teammates who felt justified in their skepticism. Unfazed, Pope retreated to midfield again and launched a perfect spiral 58 yards, silencing his teammates. For good measure, Pope punted a third time from the 50-yard line and hit another that landed right on the goal line.
• Richard Crawford, who will be a senior in the fall, is all but guaranteed one of the starting CB spots, but started slowly Thursday, dropping a sure interception when he jumped in front of WR Steve McCormack and had a pass hit him right in the chest. Moments later, Crawford simply got beaten by a good player making a good play, when QB Kyle Padron fired a 25-yard strike into the right side of the end zone and WR Keenan Holman outjumped Crawford for the high pass. (To be fair, I didn't see Crawford give up another completion for the rest of the afternoon.)
• McCormack got caught flat-footed on the pass Crawford should have picked off, but responded nicely on the next drive. QB J.J. McDermott found McCormack on back-to-back plays — first on a crossing route over the middle and then on a soft deep ball over CB Chris Parks in the end zone.
• McDermott started fast, completing his first five passes, before hitting a cold stretch. A pass into the end zone was dropped by WR Brad Haynes, who had three defenders swatting at the ball, and the next pass sailed over Haynes' head. One play later, McDermott looked for an open target before firing a shallow sideline pass that was intercepted and "returned" by CB Chris Castro.
• Randall Joyner was moved from safety to linebacker shortly after his arrival on campus last year, and showed flashes of his DB skills when he jumped up to snag a pass over the middle from QB Steve Kaiser.
• One of the players who looks visibly different from last season is LB Taylor Reed, who has put on a solid 15 pounds over his 2010 listed playing weight of 215 pounds. Reed said he now weighs 230 pounds, the weight at which he hopes to play in 2011. In order to carry that weight during the season, he said he plans to add a few more pounds in the weight room, under the assumption that he will run off a little weight when the Ponies convene in August for preseason camp.
• CB Daren Kitchen is one of just three true freshmen working with his new teammates (freshmen don't report until next week), along with NT Rishaad Wimbley and OL Taylor Lasecki. Some freshmen can get intimidated when they first move up to the college level, but thus far, Kitchen seems to carry himself with a little swagger, and has caught the eye of at least a couple of teammates, one of whom hailed Kitchen's size, long arms, ball skills and quickness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Caught up with OL Taylor Lasecki after the workout to find out about how he has overhauled his physique over the last couple of years. As a sophomore, Lasecki said he was "250 or 260" pounds. He started playing his junior season at 260 but dropped to 240 over the course of the season. As he matured and continued to work out, he got up to about 285 pounds for his senior season at Frisco High School, and now is up to "around 300" (he said he weighed in before Thursday's workout at 299 pounds; after working out — and drinking a lot of water — he was up to 303.
Lasecki said his increased bulk is due in part to the natural physical maturation of players his age, persistent work in the weight room ... and eating.
"I eat what I have normally eaten," he said. "If I get too heavy, I watch what I eat, but I eat pretty normally. I just work out a lot and I'm growing."
After he signed his national letter of intent with the Mustangs in February, Lasecki stopped working out with his teammates at Frisco HS.
"I got the (conditioning) packet from SMU and started working out on my own," Lasecki said. "(The SMU workout) is a little different from the lifting we did in high school. There are more Olympic lifts, like the snatch (in which a barbell is lifted from the floor and raised overhead with the arms fully extended, all in one motion)."
Having passed his SMU physical, Lasecki comes down from Frisco every day to work out with his new teammates and the Mustangs' strength and conditioning staff. The workouts, he said, are designed to build more than just strength.
"Some of it is about improving flexibility, too," he said. "In a lift like the hang clean (in which a barbell rests in front of the lifter's waist before being raised up until it rests across the front of the shoulders), it's not just about getting the weight up. They talk about letting the weight come back toward your chest, so the wrists get more flexible, or even bending your fingers back, too. You've got to be strong, but you've got to be able to move and use that strength, too."
