Colorado State University Athletics
CSU spring football blog: Practice 5
4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 1, 2010
Check news page for previous practice blogs
By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Lightning pushed the CSU football team inside Thursday. The Rams made a seamless transition to the last-minute change and completed their fifth practice, taking advantage of a luxury they didn’t have last spring, a $13 million Indoor Practice Facility.
Head Coach Steve Fairchild strategically begins each practice with a drill designed to set the tone for the day. Most of the time, the Rams kick off the session with a 2-minute drill, to establish Fairchild’s preferred, NFL-level practice tempo. But on Thursday, the Rams opened with a drill designed to establish a physical tone.
That drill, something the team began doing weekly in 2009, is simply called “the boards.” The boards are flat strips of red rubber, 4 inches wide and 3 yards long. Each board has two white hash marks, exactly 1 yard apart. Equipment managers lay out four of these strips, in parallel fashion, about 3 yards apart. Then, at each station, coaches pit one offensive player against one defensive player, each in a three-point stance with his right hand lined up with the hash mark closest to him.
Like a martial arts official, offensive coordinator Pay Meyer drops his hand to begin the primitive competition, one by one down the line of boards, until all four stations are completed.
Picture a cross between sumo wrestling and hand-to-hand combat, with the raucous crowd – each player’s teammates -- only inches away from the gladiators in a huddle only 15 yards wide, with more than 100 players yelling at the top of their lungs.
Only quarterbacks and specialists were exempt. Coaches pitted linemen vs. linemen, linebackers against tight ends and fullbacks, and running backs against defensive backs. The last competition was a grudge match between SS Ivory Herd and RB Raymond Carter.
Fired up by that drill, not surprisingly, the Rams went on to complete their most physical practice of the young spring. While the team had only one period that included live tackling, much of the day included reverberating hits during “thud” periods, when defenders are supposed to simply strike their opponents and not take them to the ground.
Even the cornerbacks and receivers competed in a highly physical fashion. On one competitive occasion, CB Immanuel Mitchell jammed his man at the line of scrimmage, WR Jyrone Hickman, with an upward double stiff arm, throwing Hickman back several feet. Seconds later, after coaches made the two run the play again, Hickman barely beat Mitchell to the corner of the end zone, making a one-handed catch and dragging his left foot as he barreled out of bounds.
The defense also laid several big hits on RB Chris Nwoke, after Nwoke steamrolled defenders on two occasions at Tuesday’s practice.
Plays of the Day: Nico Ranieri found Chris Robinson for a 33-yard play early in the practice….Ezra Thompson made an acrobatic interception, using his wing span to deflect a pass several times before bringing it down…Mychal Sisson recovered a fumble during the first team period…Momo Thomas also picked off a deflected pass during a team thud period…Pete Thomas connected with Carter on a screen pass that would’ve been a 40-yard touchdown early in the day.
Red zone: The Rams worked on their red-zone plays much of the day. Byron Steele, who caught everything thrown in his direction Thursday, secured a point-blank bullet from T.J. Borcky in the end zone during an 11-on-11 red-zone period.
Live scrimmage: Defense dominated the practice-ending live scrimmage, winning 15-8 in the team’s unique scoring system. Sisson and Andy Clements recorded sacks during the 17-play competition.
Quarterback update: Pete Thomas took all the reps with the first team again Thursday. Ranieri took many of the snaps with the second-team offense, while Borcky handled mostly third-team duties. It’s still very early in the spring, though, and coaches are experimenting with how each quarterback handles first-team personnel.
Guest speaker: Fairchild invited former linebacker Kenya Ragsdale, the Rams’ leading tackler in 1993 and ’94, to address the team prior to Thursday’s practice. Ragsdale, a first-team all-conference choice during an unforgettable ’94 campaign, helped the Rams to a No. 10 national ranking and a Holiday Bowl berth opposite Michigan. The Ohio native told the team he attributed the Rams’ success that year to the internal accountability players had with one another. He remembered players pushing themselves to practice, watch film, and condition when coaches weren’t around. To close, Ragsdale encouraged players to make this year fun and memorable, because they would remember this time, good or bad, the rest of their lives.
Saturday practices: Saturday practices during the spring, when weather allows them to take place outside, are open to the public. All Saturday practices, including this weekend, are expected to begin at approximately 9:30 a.m. and will be held at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium. Concessions and services (such as restrooms) will not be available, however. When weather moves the Rams to the Indoor Practice Facility, practices will be closed to the public for space reasons.
Draft preview: The Mtn. (DirecTV Channel 616, other cable channels) will air a one-hour NFL draft preview show Saturday at 12, 5 and 11 p.m. MDT. The show features analysis from former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist. As part of the show, The Mtn. taped an interview with Fairchild and Cole Pemberton, invited to last month’s NFL combine, on Monday.
April Fools: The athletic department was the target of an April 1 ruse Thursday, as a local restaurant circulated an e-mail alleging CSU had sold corporate naming rights to Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium. The restaurant’s Web site gave voters four options, and handed out buy-one-get-one-free coupons for participants. It was a clever idea, but wasn’t very well executed. It was comparable to an onside kick called at an unexpected time, only the ball didn’t travel 10 yards.
