BG Starts Fall Practice

Fall practice is underway.  I just watched Coach Babers on media day and then after the first day of practice.  Like most coaches, he doesn't actually say anything that's really interesting.  It's mostly Coachspeak.  I will give him credit...there was a low level of Baberdoccio as well.  He said that he knows that are expectations and the team has to meet them.

Two things of interest, in my opinion.  The first is about Austin Valdez.  He's from Sylvania and was recruited by Coach Clawson to be a QB at BG.  Obviously, there is a little logjam there so Babers moved him to LB.  After training as a LB for a year and a half, Coach says he is a "good looking cat."  He's going to be important.  BG had big losses at LB and the ability of the players we have to replace them is going to be huge.  There are also question marks on the line (as there are in all parts of the D) and there could be a lot of times where the line of scrimmage is down field and the LBs are going to be critical to defending that.

The other thing is the offensive line.  Coach made an interesting comment...he's made it twice actually...that the offensive line LOST WEIGHT over the summer.  When was the last time you heard that?  The talk before was always focused on bulking up.  Now, to play the up-tempo style, you need lineman who are lighter.  It highlights on the difficulties when you go to system football--both when you enter system football and when you exit system football.  It is more and more common, though.  I googled "weight loss offensive lineman up tempo" and you can see the same thing going on at NC State, Tennessee (!), Idaho, the 49ers, Grantsville HS in Utah.  And that's just the first page.