Lumberjacks Open 2015 Fall Camp
8/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
SFA Practice One Photo Gallery
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – There is a word the Stephen F. Austin coaching staff became all too familiar with last season. The word is “Geronimo,” used to signify extended delays caused by weather or other uncontrollable circumstances that disrupts the Lumberjacks continuity and routine.
Tuesday, “Geronimo” made its first appearance of 2015, rearing its head five minutes before the start of SFA’s first team practice of fall camp.
After having no substantial rainfall in over a month in the Nacogdoches area, a number of lightning strikes, followed by a pair of downpours delayed SFA’s first practice of the season by an hour and 15 minutes. But once SFA finally took to the field, it was time to get back to business as usual. Just a little more damp than it anticipated.
“We were in this situation a number of times in 2014 and were undefeated in games in which we had weather or other types of delays, so it’s nothing new to our players,” said head coach Clint Conque. “I thought our players adjusted to it well. It definitely was nice to have the temperature drop as much as it did and it was just nice to finally get fall practices underway.”
Once the skies began to clear, SFA took to the turf at Homer Bryce Stadium for a 14-period workout in helmets and shorts, focusing primarily on fundamentals and individual drills. Special teams once again was a major focus at the beginning of the practice session, leading into route-running by the offense and specialty focus by the defense.
SFA will continue the split-squad practice schedule for the next three days with the freshmen and newcomers taking to the field for an hour-long specialty practice at 3:45 each day, followed by the full team practice getting underway at 5:00 p.m. Conque and the Lumberjacks should return to the grass practice fields behind the SFA Field House Wednesday as long as the wet weather stays away from the Nacogdoches area.
Over the next three weeks, stay tuned to SFAJacks.com for the 2015 SFA Fall Camp Report as we take a look at each Lumberjack position, looking at the experienced returners, key newcomers and biggest question marks as the ‘Jacks gear up for the 2015 season opener against Northern Arizona on Saturday, September 5th at Homer Bryce Stadium.
Q&A with Head coach Clint Conque
On the start of 2015 fall camp:
“I saw a lot of enthusiasm. It was good to get out today. We had a little bit of a change of plans where we started up on the grass but the weather came through and forced us to move it down to the turf at Homer Bryce. I thought the players adjusted to it well and it was a great effort by our support staff to get everything taken care of. Certainly it wasn’t perfect. When you break in a bunch of new balls and have slick weather, we weren’t able to throw it and catch it as well as we’d like to. The theme right now is tempo – we’re trying to play fast with a sense of urgency and put a lot of pressure on our players to perform, especially when they’re tired and under duress.”
On if delaying the start of camp was an option with the weather:
“No, it wasn’t an option. The start of camp is based on when your first game is and when you start school, and being we start on August 31st, which is a week later than most schools, we’re a little at a disadvantage. We’ll get the same number of opportunities as everybody else in the country, just the problem with it is we need to squeeze them into three weeks while everyone else can squeeze them into four. We’re taking a premium on making sure we’re taking care of our body – hydrating, eating right, being smart to get every player to every practice. We’ve got to find out in a hurry who can help us with the newcomers that came in this summer and then get our veterans sharp and ready for our first opponent in just over three weeks. We’ve got a lot of work to do in a very short period of time. Trust me, if we could have started last week, we would have. We got practice one in tonight, and most of our conference opponents are on practice six or seven at this point. It will all even out, but it just puts more of a burden on us as coaches to get everything accomplished while keeping everyone healthy.”
On balancing intense practices with the need to give players recovery time:
“There are two things that are going to be key this fall. The first is the amount of time we put in the summer and the strength and conditioning and offseason workouts we did. There is a good foundation there that we can build on as we head into fall camp. The other is figuring out how hard to push our players – when to hit, when to go live, and when to ease off a bit to allow their bodies to recover. The worst thing you can do as a coach is to bring your team to the first game crippled or tired. We’ve got a plan, but we need the players to do their part with hydration and rest and eating with a purpose. We’ve just got to get everyone to the practice field every day for the next three weeks.”
On the importance of the staff continuity heading into 2015:
“We feel a little more settled this year, but you’re never comfortable. We talk a lot about being comfortable with the uncomfortable. We’ve laid a lot of bricks into the foundation of this program but still have a lot of work left to do and a lot of holes left to fill. We’ve got a lot of young men who are new to this program or players that maybe didn’t play a lot of snaps last year that are certainly going to have opportunities to make an impact.”
On the strength of the team heading into fall camp:
“I think both our offensive and defensive lines are going to set the tone early. We return all five starters and eight players with significant experience on the offensive line and have three of our four starters back on the defensive line with seven of our top eight coming back. We’ve also added some pieces with transfers and freshmen to bolster those positions so the trenches should be the strong point in the early part of camp. We’ve got some lesser experience at the running back and have some new players at the quarterback and wide receiver positions, so hopefully that experience up front will take some pressure off the new players in the early going. Defensively, even though we made some significant progress, we need to be a little more physical up front and defend the run better.”
On Gus Johnson getting the chance to possibly start Thursday for the Cowboys:
“We’re really excited for Gus. He has worked incredibly hard for this opportunity so we’re ecstatic for him and his family. He’s handled this whole process as a professional and obviously when Dallas brought him in for camp they saw something special in him, and it’s just like what we tell our young players now. When you get your opportunity, you need to take advantage of it. The Cowboys are having some injury issues at the running back position, but that has opened the door for Gus to show what he’s capable of. We’ve always told him it doesn’t matter if you get one rep or 50 reps, you need to make sure you capitalize on how many chances you get. He’s in a battle and he knows that, but he knows this is his window of opportunity to show up on the big stage. I’m very excited for Thursday night to turn on the NFL Network and see Gus line up at tailback for America’s Team.”
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