First Scrimmage of 2009!

It's hard to believe that the first week of fall camp is under our belts, and we take another step closer to our first game on Aug. 29th. On Saturday we took our show on the road to Lee High School in front of a pretty good crowd for our first full scrimmage of this year. As a coach, I feel that we are moving fairly well in the right direction. Defense is always going to be ahead of the game this early...which is good. Most of our turnovers were due to tipped/dropped balls from our receivers. This is very fixable problem. Pass protection was solid, in fact, it was better then I have seen in some time, which our running backs enjoy very much. It was great to see some young players step up and make a name for themselves. A.J. Yelder ran from the opposite side of the field to lay a block that sprung Jurell Williams on his touchdown. That is just pure hustle. Leslie James, freshman from Andalusia, Alabama was very impressive. In this type of offense it's attention to detail that brings success, and players like James did just that. The little things in the game are just as important as the big things.

Defensively, I was impressed with the "hitters" that were on the field. It seems to me that our guys are flying all over the field and making big hits. Not to mention that they missed very few tackles. This is a huge improvement from last season. It always seemed that we had a hard time wrapping up last season. Well, it looks to me that problem has been addressed. Thom and Riggins were two linebackers that delivered some pain. There were many others.

This blog is meant to let our Eagle fans know about this "ins and outs" of our program. I can assure you that many of the problems from 2008 have been addressed. So get ready for a great season.

GO EAGLES!

2009 Fall Camp

When Gregg Baker pulled through the gates at Faulkner University on Monday, he had butterflies in his stomach.
The first-year head coach was about to conduct his first practice, and he was suf­fering from a strange combination of nerves and excitement.
"My stomach did a couple of flips," Baker said Monday afternoon, in between the Eagles' 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. two-a-day practices. "I never imagined this (when I accepted an assistant's position at Faulkn­er last year).
"Five years ago, I was the offensive line coach at Prattville High School, and I thought I'd hit the big time then. This here is just unbelievable to me. When I came through that gate this morning, I thought, 'I'm about to hold my first practice.' I can't describe that feeling."
After the initial weird feelings, though, the day went about like Baker expected.
The coaching staff wasted no time, as it went about installing new special teams formations and implementing new offen­sive and defensive schemes.
New defensive coordinator Duane McWhorter, the former Jeff Davis High School head coach, began teaching his phi­losophies to the players, and a five-way battle for the starting quarterback posi­tion got under way.
"Honestly, it was just a regular day," Baker said. "It wasn't much different from the practices last year. The coaches had everything very well organized and the players were ready to work. I couldn't have asked for more."
Monday's primary objective for the coaches was to evaluate the players and get some sense of where things stand at various positions. That theme will be car­ried out throughout the week, as the staff gets a handle on the talents of the new players.
"We've got a lot of good athletes that are new in the program and we're looking to see how all the pieces fit together," Baker said. "That will be the goal over the next couple of weeks (of camp). We've got our work cut out for us there -- there will be some good battles at some spots."
No spot will be more contested than quarterback.
As practice began Monday morning, five players -- two returning players, a junior college transfer and two incoming freshmen -- were vying for the starter's job.
And Baker said there was no favorite.
"It's a good, good battle for that spot that's probably going to go down to the week before that first game," he said. "I consider that a good problem to have -- having five guys qualified for the job. These are five pretty good QBs."
Faulkner will practice twice again to­day, Wednesday and Friday, once on Thurs­day and will hold its first scrimmage of the fall on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Robert E. Lee High School.

Josh Moon-Montgomery Advertiser