Full-Contact Football underway

Progression in training camp provides new excitement all the time for college football. There's reporting day, there's the first practice, then there's half-pads, and finally full pads. From there, though you have to wait for the first game when the real excitement begins, but at the same time Sunday night's first full-contact practice draws a lot of excitement from players, staff and fans.

McMurry conducted just over a two-hour practice Sunday night with full pads and the team is beginning to piece together the offense, defense and special teams before its first game Sept. 4 in Muskogee, Okla. against NAIA Bacone College.

Hal Mumme did say he wanted to see a better effort out of the players in tonight's official press release of the practice, but he did admit that some of the flaws are to be expected on the first night in full pads. No rest for the weary though as they head straight into two-a-days tomorrow.

Brian Schmidt was our professional photographer last season for all things McMurry Sports and did a great job. He took a job outside of Abilene and we welcome Gary Rhodes to the crew. He came and shot the practice tonight, and he's going to do some editing (probably much better work than mine) and then I'll upload his gallery tomorrow so fans can purchase the action shots. For tonight, the YouTube video will have to do - hopefully you'll enjoy our individual interviews with the players, we'll try to keep that up through the last six days of camp.

I will not be covering the morning practice tomorrow, but it will be business as usual tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading and watching.
Stay tuned ...
--KR

Day Four - Time and Time again

Less than 10 hours after the last person left the field last night, or less than nine hours after the SID left the press box, the McMurry Football team is at it again with its last half-pads practice before full-contact, full-pads Sunday night. Today's practice has very little deviation from last night. The warmups, which could be considered more like drills always stay the same at practice throughout the year with Mumme and crew and it takes about 30 minutes before they move on.

There was a lot of chatter today on the one-on-one drills between receivers and defensive backs. These kids love to compete and it's easy to get excited when everyone is trying make names for themselves. Right now, they've begun Bandit drill again with Jake Mullin under center for the offense and the "ones." I've seen the defense "sack" Mullin now twice in the first five plays. Stephen Warren ran with the second team last night, and then led a drive with the "ones," I expect the same again.

The players will go through meetings following practice, but won't be active again until tomorrow night's full-pads practice at 7:30 p.m. That is always a big night for any collegiate football team, and we'll be back with videos and photos once again.

Hope you've enjoyed the coverage thus far, and here is the link to the DAY FOUR PHOTO GALLERY.

Stay tuned ...
--KR

Half Pads - Half way to fun

Let's face it, half pads is much better to watch than just helmets, however, it's still about half as fun as watching the full-pads practice and everything starts to come together. But, just 48 hours from now we'll have completed our first full-pads practice, and there was some contact tonight. The position drills at the beginning of practice were geared up a notch and the defensive conclusion of the infamous Packer Day Drill was a little tougher on the defensive players with half pads. Tonight also marked the first times that the team ran "Bandit" drill. It's an 11-on-11 drill where the offense runs 44 plays in 25 minutes. This drill is the essence of the Air Raid Offense and does a good job of preparing the defense for a no-huddle style offense. The quarterbacks and receivers get plays on the fly from the O.C. Matt Mumme - no matter the result of the play, the ball is moved forward to the next 10-yard line. Tonight Coach Mumme told the team that they were "far from perfect" but once again, he was pleased with the effort.

To speculate for a second - there is already a difference between 2009 and 2010 in a couple of areas. To the average fan, which I consider myself when it comes to knowledge, the offense and defense is already much more fluid with the amount of returnees back. The other noticeable thing is the amount of size, speed and strength that the newcomers have added, not to mention the physical improvements of the returning players after an off-season with the Mumme staff.

Tonight's practice ran a little late, so we didn't have as much time to edit video as we did before, but we hope you enjoy what you see. Here is the link to the DAY THREE PHOTO GALLERY.

I'll be at practice at 8:30 a.m. - but will only be taking a few stills and then preparing for the first full-pads practice Sunday night.
Stay tuned ...
--KR

Day 3 Schedule

Not much going on to film or take pictures of until tonight for our second night practice and third overall. A little more contact tonight as the team gets in half pads for the next two practices before the first full-pads practice Sunday night. If you noticed the first night, I generally have some sort of video up by around 10:30 - 11 p.m. - so you night owls will be able to see it while the rest of you will have to catch it the next day. Once again, we've had a great following for training camp - we had over 300 visits yesterday, and we hope you continue checking back. Spread the word to your friends, family, teammates, etc. The best page to send them to is http://www.mcmurrysports.com/2010fbcamp - that will take them to all the different outlets. Some of you have begun to follow us on Twitter - you might also consider following http://twitter.com/d3football. D3football.com does a great job of following the 300+ D3 teams with football.

Be sure to follow our Twitter Page, Facebook Page, and check mcmurrysports.com regularly. Also don't forget our online store with McMurry Athletics hats and t-shirts for sale.

Aug. 13 - Training Camp Schedule:
8:30 a.m. - meetings
11:30 a.m. - lunch
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. - Offensive/Defensive Meetings
5 p.m. - Dinner
7:30 p.m. - Practice #3 - Half Pads

We'll see you tonight ...
--KR

Day 2 Gallery: ARN covers McMurry's Wednesday practice

I'm sitting up in the press box at Wilford Moore Stadium for day two of practice, which began at 8:30 a.m. Today is much more offense/defense oriented. The new backs and receivers are starting to run the Air Raid Offense, and the veterans are looking to improve on what they know. According to the coaches, the entire offense can be installed in three days, but takes weeks, months, and years to perfect. On the defensive side Kendall Roberson (secondary coach) and Barris Grant (line coach) have been working on fundamentals while defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn is working with linebackers. The practice should close with a little bit of 7-on-7.

Here are 35 more photos for this morning's practice. Be sure and check out the gallery and remember that you can purchase prints of all our pictures this year for all sports. Also remember t-shirts and hats are on sale at our online store with training camp specials.

Other Notes:
• We are keeping a running roster, this is definitely, NOT a final roster, but rather a running list as we go through camp. If a player has a jersey number, it is because he played last year, it does NOT mean that players without numbers are not on the team, etc. Be patient with us as we get it together. If a player is at camp, and not on the list, it is because he has not turned in his publicity questionnaire to me. Check the tentative 2010 roster here.
• The Abilene Reporter News wrote a brief article on the first day of practice and the renovations to the locker room provided by the fund-raising efforts of Hal Mumme. Check that story here. -- by Sam Waller
• Waller and the ARN also featured red-shirt freshman transfer quarterback Stephen Warren who returns to Abilene after playing his high school ball for Abilene High. Read that feature here.
• No practice tonight, I'll try to post yesterday's press interviews with Will Morris and Hal Mumme this afternoon if I can get my cord situation worked out. Otherwise, we'll be back with more tomorrow night at our second night practice.
Stay tuned ...
--KR

Mullin makes his entrance, McMurry works on special teams in day one

Last year Hal Mumme and I played the name game throughout training camp to add some spice to our videos. This year, quarterback Jake Mullin set the theme and Mumme will update us with some of the interesting characters on the team. He says we'll have plenty, and take a look at how Mullin tried to loosen up his team heading into camp in 2010.



We also had more "official" interviews with Hal Mumme and junior free safety Will Morris. I ran into a couple of camera issues, but all I need is a cord, and I will provide those tomorrow. Go ahead and check out the official press release for day one and the PHOTO GALLERY.

It's here

Year two of McMurry Football Training Camp Central is here. Now, we have set up an official landing page: http://www.mcmurrysports.com/2010fbcamp, but we'll pretty much be using the blog as the most updated form of communication. Keep in mind our Twitter page, you can follow us and actually get cell phone updates all season long with scores and story lines. If there are enough of you who want to do this, but aren't quite sure how to do so, send me an email at mcmsid@gmail.com and I'll try to help you out as best I can. I will embed all our YouTube videos on the blog - but if you want to go to our official YouTube Channel, click here. Official press releases can still be found at http://www.mcmurrysports.com.

Last year, we didn't have a practice on the first day, so we created a little film of how our players went through all the registration lines. If you want to see last year's video (because we won't be doing a check-in video this year), it's pretty much the same song and dance this year, click here.

Also, be aware that we will be uploading photo galleries to mcmurrysports.com and you can purchase photos this year, that will also include games as the season goes on.

Today's schedule is as follows:
11 a.m. - Dorm Check-in
3 p.m. - Dorm Check-in ends
3:30 p.m. - Compliance, Sports Information and first meeting with all players
5 p.m. - Medical Staff Meeting
6 p.m. - Dinner
7 p.m. - Team Meeting
8 p.m. - Practice #1