Keegan Kennedy's Big Bowl Blog Day 6

Dec. 13, 2008

Keegan Kennedy
Blog #6 December 12, 2008

It is finally nice to have the whole team back together. All the players, all the coaches, and all the other members of our Wildcat family were eager to start back up again. Pre practice meetings started at 2:30 today, while practice got going at 4. In the O-line room, we had to knock some rust off and really get back into things. Coach Ingalls did a great job of installing a couple of new things, while also giving us an overview of Missouri.

At practice, the juices were flowing. Because we practice inside, the O-line and D-line are always in the annex (back of the indoor). Now, the annex has some advantages and some disadvantages for the big men. First, the annex is a lot smaller then the indoor field. This allows the big men to not have to run very far distances when we are changing drills. Now don't get wrong the impression, Coach Ingalls and Coach Long do a great job of kicking our butts back there. In fact, someone on the O-line, who will remain nameless, made the remark that we are put in the annex so the rest of the team can't hear our cries for help. An advantage of practicing in the annex is that there is a garage door that can be manually open. For the past couple of practices we have always relied on cracking the garage door so that it will remain cool while we practice. Today however, the very wise Melissa Wuelser, who is the offensive athletic trainer, got wind of our plan and shut the garage door. As I pleaded with her, she firmly said no, and walked away with a slight grin on her face, almost as if she enjoyed putting us through suffering.

My favorite periods during practice are always the team periods. Not only do you get to actually scrimmage real football situations, but you also get to check out the young guys when you are not playing. There were a couple of players who I was impressed with. First, I saw Jacob Schmidt not only make a couple impressive runs after the catch, but I also saw him throw some BIG blocks on linebackers and D-ends. Another guy that stood out to me today was Zeke Markshausen. Zeke made a really nice catch over his shoulder on the sideline. He tip-toed down the sideline, stayed in bounds, and then housed it. Other guys that were working today were Jack DiNardo, Neil Dieters, Chuck Porcelli, Demetrius Fields and Kevin Watt. Now everyone was really working today and getting better, but those are a couple of the guys that stood out to me.

After practice, Coach Fitz explained to us that we are both a very deserving and lucky team to be practicing and preparing for a bowl game. We are deserving in the sense that we have worked hard as players, coaches, and staff to get where we are today. We have invested and bought into the concept of what our team is all about. We never gave up, never doubted ourselves, and never second guessed who we were and what we are about. We are lucky in the sense that we get to spend three more weeks together as this team. There will always be the Wildcat football team, but there will never be a Wildcat football team again filled with seniors like: C.J. Bacher, Malcolm Arrington, Prince Kwateng, Tanner Highlen, Joel Belding, myself, Alex Rucks, John Gill, Jeff Yarbrough, Rasheed Ward, Amado Villarreal, Tyrell Sutton, Eric Peterman, David Oredugba, Kevin Mims, Ross Lane, Rejaie Johnson, Todd Dockery, Mike Dinard, Kyle Daley, Omar Conteh and Phil Brunner and Ramon Diaz. Coach Fitz really hit home on some of the things he said. Anyways, we have the banquet tomorrow and then practice again on Sunday. Thanks for reading. Go Cats!

Keegan "Tuna" Kennedy