Nichols not happy with "sluggish'' practice
August 13, 2008
Faulkner head football coach Jim Nichols was not happy with Wednesday afternoon's workout in full pads at Cramton Bowl, calling the two-hour practice "sluggish'' and adding that his players were just not into it mentally.
The Eagles were not able to practice Tuesday due to the inclement weather, and Nichols believes the one-day layoff hurt the momentum his team had built during early fall drills.
"It was not a good day,'' said Nichols, whose second Faulkner team will open the season Sept. 6 in Birmingham against Samford. "Days off sometimes can be good, but we're right in the middle of getting our offensive and defensive plans implemented and not being out here yesterday really hurt us. Our guys have to realize that every time we get on this field we have to be ready.''
Nichols and his staff spent a lot of time Wednesday working on special teams, with a trio of Eagles - Colton Terry, Da'Drieko Hughes and Danny Bise - battling out to become Faulkner's lead punt returner. Nichols admits that the 2007 team struggled in all facets of the kicking game, and a concerted effort has been made to make a marked improvement in that area the past two weeks.
"Last week we worked hard on our field goal team, and now we're spending a lot of extra time on the punt game,'' he said. "We think we can win some games with special teams, and it's going to be a concentration point for us.''
Faulkner will practice again Thursday afternoon at 3 at Cramton Bowl, before a full day on Saturday. Faulkner will practice Saturday morning at Cramton Bowl, preparing for a 6 p.m. scrimmage Saturday night at Jeff Davis High School.
"We really want to thank coach Duane McWhorter and the staff at Jeff Davis for allowing us to use their facilities for our 100-play scrimmage,'' Nichols said. "Saturday night we're going to take a long hard look at our freshmen, and decide which ones are ready to compete at this level.''
Following the road game at Samford, Faulkner returns for its home opener at Cramton Bowl against cross-town rival Huntingdon on Sept. 13.