Thank you to everyone who helped us this past year! Our staff arrived in Jacksonville about 13 months ago from different states (WI, MI, MN, NE & IL). We had to get to know each other in a very short period of time. The players had already left for their summer break, which meant we had very little time to get to know them before the first game. In fact, we had about 20 days, to learn all the players names and faces (let alone what they were capable of doing), for the players to learn their respective offensive and defensive systems, for our staff to make camp/travel arrangements and set up all the little things that are critical in a football program. I was extremely pleased with how well our young men stepped up to the challenge that faced us all. These young men were not recruited to Illinois College by this coaching staff, yet they embraced our philosophies as if they were their own. These young men lived up to the academic, athletic and social expectations we place on all who are involved in our program. I believe they bought into the three pillars of our program; which are FAITH, COURAGE & CLASS. Eventhough I did not directly recruit these men, these are my players...and I am proud to say so!
On August 13, 2008, we had 82 players report for camp. I am excited to report that this August 14th, we'll have between 115 and 120 players report. As a staff, we are excited about the off-season our returning players had in the strength & conditioning program. And the talent in this recruiting class. With recruits coming from eight different states (CA, WI, IL, MO, KY, MI, IN & NY), we were able to add some much needed depth to some of our need areas. We will have much more competition for playing time than we did a year ago...and champions thrive on competition!
The month of September will be a fun one! In addition to our four games on Saturday afternoons, we'll be playing three JV Games! The only way to get better at the sport of football, is to play football! It's not like basketball, where you can play pick-up games or baseball, where you can take some cuts in the batting cage. How often does an O-Lineman get a chance to knock over a D-Lineman? And how often does that D-Lineman get a chance to knock-out a Quarterback? The truth is very rarely. So instead of our young guys spending all their time worried about how to run the scout team...our guys are becoming more efficient in our offensive and defensive systems.
The month of September will be a fun one! In addition to our four games on Saturday afternoons, we'll be playing three JV Games! The only way to get better at the sport of football, is to play football! It's not like basketball, where you can play pick-up games or baseball, where you can take some cuts in the batting cage. How often does an O-Lineman get a chance to knock over a D-Lineman? And how often does that D-Lineman get a chance to knock-out a Quarterback? The truth is very rarely. So instead of our young guys spending all their time worried about how to run the scout team...our guys are becoming more efficient in our offensive and defensive systems.
This season should be a fun one! I believe we'll be a more talented team than a year ago. However, eventhough our depth will be much improved, we will only have 12 seniors on the team. This alone means that we will be a young team. So, how they will react in certain situations? I guess we'll all find out! Nonetheless, I can say this...we'll have FAITH in each other, COURAGE to overcome adversity and do it all in a first-CLASS manner!
For all the chaos of the last summer, this summer has been much more calm. We have itineraries under control. Travel arrangements set. We actually have met all the players who will be playing for us! We even had time to play golf! We'll come back to that topic in another blog-post!
For more information on our program, be sure to check out our program at http://football.ic.edu/.
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