Chapter 21

Coach Ruffin took his team to his field and brought them to the training equipment, dummies and sleds and asked who might not be familiar with them. No one raised their hands but Coach went through the basics of each and said they would get to the "rough stuff" the following day.

"Today is a day to get stretched out, have a little light contact and motivate some competitiveness. In a little while we're going to go over and meet the offense for a little touch scrimmage. I don't need any heroes here today, let's not anyone get hurt. Ben Elgart here will be our defensive backfield instructor, when he calls your name go with him and he'll run you through some of the drills and exercises you'll do every time you step on the practice field and just prior to every game. Barry Wicker will take the line once Ben's crew moves out. Any walk-ons left I will talk to and assign." Coach Ruffen said as he paced the perimeter of the players gathered.

Meanwhile Jordy Alford was making much the same speech to the group gathered before him.

"Once Coach Ruffen clears out from the training area I'll quickly go through the use of the sleds and dummies and then we'll split up. Willie White will take the receivers corps, Shack Johnson will take the linemen, I'll work with the backs. Please note that whomever QB's the line today is totally red shirt, no contact, ... understand? The drills and exercises you do today with the instructors today will be the same ones you do every time you step on the practice field and also just prior to every game. We'll have a little fun today, but by tomorrow you'll be calling your Mothers to tell them how much you hate me. Don't worry my feelings don't get hurt easy and when you walk off the field after the last game this year you WILL be a better player than you are right now." Coach Alford said with a knowing grin as he led them up to the just vacated training field."

Ira Pressley and Ger Nietczyk took their special teams to the furthest practice field where, along with one special instructor assistant coach, Cy Hilton, they weeded down to kickers and Ger took them aside While Coach Pressley spoke to the rest.

"With few exceptions, for any of you that make the team you'll all be part of either the offensive or defensive squads. Your work with me will be for when you're called upon for special assignments, like punt blocking, returning, kick-offs, extra points and FGA's. Your assignment to me doesn't mean we think any more or less of your skills overall, we just think you might be suited for these situations. With the exceptions of the kickers, you'll all meld into the X and O mix." Ira said in his folksy drawl.

"Now I might watch you blocking on a field goal attempt and pull you out the next time we line that way. Don't take it personally. Special teams are fluid. We might use the same line on the 4th and 1 attempt and the resulting punt if we don't make it. I might run 2 or 3 of you in or out. Tomorrow when you come to practice you'll see the lists of who goes to what fields and some of you will go with Coach Ruffen and some will go with Coach Alford. But right now we want to give the kickers some looks with a line and a rush before our little scrimmage later. Remember, no one's getting hurt here today."

Coach Pressley took his charges down to the training field as the others had and showed them the training equipment they would all learn to hate as much as the man, or woman next to him.

Soon three fields buzzed with action with whistles blaring seemingly every few moments someplace. Balls flew through the air either hurled from a strong young arm or propelled from a foot. Linemen stood in 3 point stances versus a mirrored image waiting for a signal to stand and make contact with a counterpart just to lock their light pads and learn positioning of feet and squaring up of bodies. Everything was basics today. By the next practice the sounds of whistles and cajoling would be replaced with hard whistles, grunts and shouts of orders to be carried out as well as questions, in grimaced shouting form, of your abilities, your deservedness to be here on this Division One practice field. The day was no tease, for all but 6 of the walk-ons it would be their first and last day of a dream of playing.

In the "touch" scrimmage that got started later than all wanted it to, Marv Hudson shined dropping back and hitting 6 straight passes with pinpoint accuracy in heavy traffic. A freshman, Tim Waters snagged passes from the air amongst defenders, easily out maneuvering his man with grace. After the touted freshman "Junior" Contralco took a hand off from Hudson and sprinted wide avoiding defenders and turning a hard corner showing his brilliantly fast feet. Coach Winslow led the huddle and sent Hudson and Waters off and called June Bokue off the ever fluid bench. When the huddle broke Contralco lined up behind center and dropped straight back and unloaded a "Hail Mary" that, after light contact, June Bokue flew to outracing any defender by 10 steps. Junior knew how to handle the ball if the Marv Hudson experiment faltered.

All of the highlights were taken with a grain of salt considering it was a first day and it was basically a game of "touch" and "for fun". But some low lights could not be avoided from rising to the top to be skimmed away. Walk-ons who didn't listen to instructions, missed assignments or apparently never played beyond sand-lot versions or small high school programs were sent off just to make sure they didn't get hurt.

One thing that didn't escape ANY of the coaches was how well their new "star" back Boge Hollins seemed to work in tandem with the returning backfield mate, Kemmer Brooks. They picked and blocked for each other like players who had played together for years. Every coach and assistant, to a man, made sure that Boge got nothing extra in his treatment. Coach Winslow felt Boge could be a natural leader and didn't want to push that mantle on to him. He felt quite sure he could lead by example and using his tremendous talent. So far that was working out fine.

The second day of practice was a long tedious 4 hours as any one could put in. It was a day of training and little contact with the ball itself. Most of the day was spent in the work-out rooms and drill field beginning to build stamina and get the body ready for real hitting. Interior linemen worked with sleds the first time, mostly lining up experiencing resistance. It would be another day before those hard workers would get fully padded and begin to slug sleds. Everyone was required to do a 50 yard "dash" through an agility ladder, then backs ran through different ladders to build speed and learn heel placement. It was all equipment they learned to hate, but was indispensable in gaining results. Only a very few players besides Boge Hollins had trained this rigorously in the past and knew all of the equipment. Surprisingly, June Bokue, quickly earning the name "June Bug" from Ira Pressley, was one who was from a major high school program in Utah knew all of the ropes of the equipment and matched Boge step for step and helped explain to the others the how and why of it all. Instruction from their peers seemed to sink in quicker than from the coaches, and that was OK with every Coach and their staffs.

By Tuesday, the first day of full pads and the first "two-a-day" one more walk-on was asked to leave and 4 invitees left the program, feeling it was over their heads, or not in their heart. The walk-on was Ben Breen, the classic style kicker. He had worked hard to improve his time to the ball, but in doing so his accuracy and distance suffered. He was going to master the quickness, you could see that, but at the moment the team couldn't carry three place kickers. He would be better off continuing his work and working on his style and skill. He was told under no uncertain terms, to stay in shape and be ready for the call. He was welcome to use the team facilities and practice with the team any weekday, just not the day before a game or game-day. The team was shaping up and positive attitudes abounded throughout the locker room. Even "females on the team' had drawn no negative responses when they all saw the positive contribution each could make. "June Bug" was aware that she would not make the varsity squad to suit up for games, but would be on the practice roster eligible to play at any time. She understood the reasons and had no problem with her situation. Nary one teammate doubted her ability to step in if needed. Females in football would be hard to swallow even as kickers, but Oksana Cushman was proving to be every bit the punter they had hoped and could play with the boys all day long. Julie Murcer, as the back-up place kicker, held her own in practice and knew unless Brian Faraday was hurt, would see little or no action. Still, all three women could easily make a case for playing at Division 1 level. June Bokue was going to be hardest to sell, even if the most experienced players on the team thought she could play.

However, Oksana was going to have to be the "Jackie Robinson" for the opposite sex, at least, in the Northeast 10 NCAA division. She could easily compete at this level as a punter without a doubt to her abilities. No amount of heckling, peer or press pressure would sway her or affect her effort. She knew what she wanted and now that she had it, no one could take it away from her. It's probably the easiest position to make the pioneering move and Jared hoped that without a lot of fanfare he could later get Julie into a game for an extra point. He didn't want to known as a "clown" among coaches by doing these "stunts". Of course, he laughed to himself, that if he was 10-0 at one point he could probably put a dog in the game without being questioned, but he didn't hold out much hope for that kind of success his first year.

Jared Winslow usually used the first day of classes one day break from the practice schedule as a day of R & R and confab with his coaches to see where they were position by position. This year any thought of R & R was scuttled as he prepared his house for the arrival of Meaghan and her son Declan. Movers would start arriving late Saturday and he wanted an idea where everything might go in the house and what would go into storage.

His head hurt trying to sort out the next few days decisions and settled on sitting at his home desk and working out his roster. He called his coaches and asked if they and their staffs could meet at his home instead of Coaches Hall. It gave him another hour at home to work on furniture logistics before his staffs showed up. It was quite the right move as ideas flowed more freely knowing he didn't have to leave and reset his video and paper notes to work on the roster.

After 50 minutes of designating some items for storage and some for temporary placement in the garage a van pulled up with 8 of his total staff, followed by Joe Barber's car with 5 more in it. In a room designed as a trophy and memento showcase, it now served as meeting area with 2 leather sofas, desk and an original bench from the original football field. 15 men pushed the comfort limits of the room, but also intensified the exchange of ideas.

The meeting was spirited and quite optimistic about individual players and the team overall. Each coach, to a man, expressed relief that there hadn't been one serious injury, as yet, for the entire practice schedule, despite some intense inter-squad scrimmages. There were still 10 days left before the full dress scrimmage vs. Boston College and only 5 cuts remained. With 80 in camp and 5 players already designated to the practice only roster Jared Winslow's target of 70 roster players, by Northeast 10 rules. The NCAA hoped that trimming overall rosters and travel rosters it would help more teams afford programs to stay competitive. Major program schools were dressing 80, 90 or more players with sometimes 50 or less seeing action. It was hoped eventually they could get to an NFL sized roster. One of the lures that brought Coach Winslow into the NEAT fold was the fact he never carried large rosters anyway and the new experimental rules would cause little burden to him.

They saw the 70 man roster as; 3 Quarterbacks 9 Wide Receivers 6 Cornerbacks 4 Tail or Halfbacks 3 Fullbacks 4 Tight Ends 5 Offensive Tackles 5 Offensive Guards 3 Centers 2 Punters 2 Place Kickers 8 Linebackers 5 Defensive Tackles 6 Defensive Ends 5 Safeties

Of course, many of the "fringe" players would be serving special teams duties as well as regular offensive starters who might be on the defensive side to cover punts and FGA's. Not many players wore "one hat" on Winslow teams, with the possible exception of the starting Quarterback and his regular backfield. There were few doubts as to who might make the team and those to be cut or added to the practice squad. There were as many "bubble" players as there were consensus cuts, basically 4. Which to keep on the practice squad were mostly decided. Those 5 players would take part in practices and be game ready in case of injury. One they knew was Ben Breen, a kicker, plus June Bokue the female receiver. The other 3 would be multi-purpose players. After the first cuts in 5 days, everyone left would be "on the team" either in the travel, home or practice rosters. On that day they would have the players elect captains.

Scott Claxton, the once thought to be timid kicker, was emerging as a cornerback and had done some duty as a linebacker. After the first day of practice he took a ride with Joe Barber to see a heart specialist in Albany for a battery of tests. He didn't return until just before the following days practice, but he had a full clean bill of health that described his heart muscle as "perfect". With the knowledge that he had little to worry about he reacted positively to Coach Winslow's challenge and had been a man possessed in practice. The "tests" his teammates gave him to see if he were tough enough were all met. The coaching staff was wondering if Scott would be chosen as defensive captain with the respect he had earned. Although that would be a great inspirational pick, they hoped they would opt for someone with more game experience. The coach's pick would be Jeremiah "Jazz" Carey. Jazz had picked up the nickname after cringing each time he heard "Jerry Carey". As a freshman he was a standout defensive tackle who had a late growth spurt and came to his sophomore year a few inches taller and leaner. He moved to outside line backer was one of the few team highlights in the Sherm Woodard regime They also felt there was little doubt that Boge Hollins would be chosen offensive captain.

After this break all practices moved to Meditek Stadium and were closed to the public and there would be less fighting for positions and more honing skills for positions. Players who would not be seeing first string action would be depended on to be run in and out of games and take over for a down or two and not cause any slack. They would have to be ready to fill Coach Pressley's Special Teams or step into an injury situation and know the playbook and their jobs.

Although Jared had always been successful as a coach with all of his teams, each was not without it's pitfalls, be it injuries, personality conflicts, players not making grades or getting into trouble. This season had been so free of any of that, even though it was early, he couldn't help but think some pillar would crumble and endanger the entire structure he was building. The day Eddie "ETA" Arnsberg came into camp he fully expected trouble based upon his last stop, even though he would only practice with the team. He had arrived in camp on Sunday and practiced but 3 days but proved to be in "game shape". He was cheerleading from the bench and encouraging his fellow teammates. Coach Winslow made it clear to Coach Alford that he wasn't to see the ball on any plays in inter-squad scrimmages, he was only to serve as a blocking back for Boge and protection of the Quarterback. If he had a temper or an ego to feed off of, Jared wanted to light the fuse and see how long he would burn before he flew off about not being able to show his skills. To both coaches surprise Eddie took the assignments in stride and even worked with Kemmer Brooks on his blocking positioning.

In the teams first closed practice on Thursday, which would end with a scrimmage, Coach Winslow intended to let Eddie Arnsberg show, hopefully, his teammates exactly what he could do. He had earned the respect of his back mates with his blocking abilities, opening holes for either back he was paired with. Now he was hoping that he would show them what could happen next year with he and Boge in the backfield and Kemmer Brooks in a wide slot. Yes, it was valuable practice time, but the hoped results were to show everyone what grit determination and patience can win. Here was a young man with tremendous talents who let his ego short circuit his football life when he was thrown into a big fish pond. Now he had to swallow his pride, give up a year of eligibility and re-route his life and he was doing it with class. It had only been a week but it was obvious he was very mature as a player and had put his life and ego in proper perspective. He knew his place with the team and would use what ever talent and skills he had to make this team better.

Everyone was aware of Boge's skills and how he could power his way through traffic, drop a shoulder to burst the line, and get to full speed in just 2 or 3 strides. Arnsberg was not as imposing nor as powerful, however he could seemingly change directions mid-stride leaving defenders to say he "disappeared". Confident would be tacklers would line him up and miss their target. If the dream of he and Boge in the same backfield ever materialized the season would be a highlight reel. But, "on paper" didn't always work out when you hit the reality button. There was a lot of work to be dome between now and that time.