SEC seeks to block Michigan from Spring Practice in Fla.

I entertained 40 farmers from the Illinois farm bureau yesterday at our farm, touring them around and explaining what we do. When they left Illinois it was 15 degrees, we were 81 yesterday, I'm sure either way it was much more enjoyable....

 

It's about 76 and sunny here.
Just replaced the oil seals on my buggy, and am about to take it out for it's first run of 2016.

 

Very nice!!

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo......

 

Scott,

We just attended the 1st MAJOR Central Texas show of the year yesterday and headed to a show n shine this morning. Let the games begin.

 

T,
Gotta work to be seen. He's going to the Nike camp. but there seems to be a bit of predetermination about camp invitations for some schools around here.

If I can afford it, he'll go to the ND camp. It's the difference between 3 days and 600 bucks vs a day trip and 30 bucks when you're comparing it to Tennessee or Vanderbilt, both of which I plan on sending him to attend.

So far he's looking at the Nike camp, Vandy, Tennessee, All-American Lineman camp and Michigan satellite for sure. We may add Memphis to that as well. The wish list at the moment is the ND camp. The combination of funding and no real family close by make doing that difficult. We'll see though. Of all his camp experiences he's had in the past, ND was his favorite by far.

 

Corey, just a thought. There has to be a lot of kids and parents in the same position as Carson and you. If he shows himself to be a solid D-1 prospect in the other, more affordable camps, there are ways to call ND's attention to him.

Having said that, I understand how he and you feel about it. Believe me.

 

We've had some local kids who started off in love with ND but didn't get attention until late in the game, so they wound up going to Southern schools. It's tough on all sides. It's a big country and there's a lot of marketing/hustling going on. There's a lot of 'prototype' players who are getting attention now, who won't be getting it at this time next year. A good example is the kid on Carson's team. He's 6'4" and 320lbs. He started out at LT but got abused there. Now they are thinking of moving him to NG, which was suppose to be Carson's spot, strictly due to his size. I've watched them for roughly the past 5 years and Carson beats him like a rented mule. The kid is soft and given the choice, he'd rather quit football. Football is in the family, full of undersized guys who go on to play at smaller schools. They see this kid as their golden ticket because he was born with the size, but he just doesn't have the heart. Carson may now be getting moved back to Rush End, Jack Linebacker which is where he started when he walked on campus. They spent 2 years making him bigger and slower, then tell him they may move him again. Absolutely no one knows why anyone would think about this move except the DL coach. He seems to like big, thick bodies and Carson is tall and lanky, even at 6'2" 230lbs. He doesn't even know how to go about conditioning because the positions are 2 different animals.

I just tell my son to have fun and do his best. There are programs out there, and Harbaugh runs one of them, that loves to grab that 6'2" to 6'5" rangy kid then bulk him up to fit the position they want. I've also been trying to sell him hard on the fun of places like NDSU. Most of the kids in this area who just miss DI FBS wind up at Jacksonville State (the team that played NDSU in the FCS title game).

There's time to spare and things have a way of working out. That's hard to explain to my son who doesn't see the bigger picture. Carson spent the last 4 years shutting down Asa Martin when the rest of his teammates struggled with him. Now Asa is at IMG and Carson is trying to fight to keep his position on his own HS team, again. He was invited to the Nike camp, so someone somewhere saw him. Still, those are camps built mostly for skill guys. I'll put the parachute on Carson all summer to work on speed/quickness, and we'll see what shakes out.

 

Corey, the bottom line is, if Carson has potential as a D-1 athlete, he will be found and offered. You instinctively know that, but now you're living it as a dad. Been there.

 

Sid,

I agree. Still, I have the coach's curse when it comes to looking at athletes including my son. I see him as a FCS or DII level kid unless there's an explosion of strength or growth. A lot comes down to position as well.

A good example.. last year, we played North Jackson in our Spring game and just crushed them. Their TE went DI and I have no idea how, except that he had the size to be an H-back TE hybrid, which would suit Carson just fine. The last ND camp he attended, they couldn't believe he wasn't a TE. Carson has begged for the chance, but as of right now, they are going with a 5'10" 175lb kid at TE which has us all scratching our head.

He was invited to the Nike camp, so we'll see what kind of numbers he puts up.

Another interesting twist, he's become so into wrestling that he is really considering it for college. 2 of his good friends from Muscle Shoals went that route instead of football. They are brothers who signed with Oklahoma State and Iowa State respectively. I was really surprised to hear that programs of that weight would even look at kids from down here, but it seems that they love the raw talent that they can mold as opposed to the gym rat who is as refined as he'll be at 17. So... I'm learning about video editing to start my son's recruiting pages. Anyone want to help? lol