McNeese offensive line effort stands out
The McNeese State football team didn’t have the luxury of shade Monday afternoon as it practiced on the new turf in Cowboy Stadium as a full unit for the first time.
{{tncms-inline account=”TylerAmPress” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">No shade today. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/McNeese?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#McNeese</a> is in The Hole for its first team practice on the new turf. <a href="https://t.co/n1cXagDLZy">pic.twitter.com/n1cXagDLZy</a></p>&mdash; Tyler Nunez (@TylerAmPress) <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerAmPress/status/1026482597227057153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”1026482597227057153″ type=”twitter”}}
The Cowboys primarily competed against each other throughout the day, with the receivers and quarterbacks going against the secondary and the linemen squaring off when they weren’t in full team drills.
McNeese head coach Lance Guidry said he liked what he saw on both sides of the ball, and he likes the improvement he’s seen on the offensive line.
“The team drill was good,” Guidry said. “I thought both team drills were better for the offense. The offensive line had a lot to do with that. There wasn’t as much penetration in the backfield.”
Senior running back David Hamm emphasized how much the Cowboys will rely on the offensive line this season, and he said he’s even offered incentives to the big men up front for making big blocks and taking care of him.
“I told a couple leaders up there like Grant Burguillos and Kyle Zenon I’m going to take care of them,” Hamm said. “I told them I’ll get them all something to eat like some Darrell’s. As long as they do their job I’m going to feed y’all and we’re going to win.”
Burguillos emerged as one of the Cowboys’ most consistent offensive linemen last season, and he was rewarded with preseason All-Southland Conference honors for his effort.
Offensive line coach Ben Norton consistently uses him has an example of how the rest of the big men up front should practice during drills, and that’s no small praise from a coach with immense attention to detail.
“Coach Norton is the best of the best,” Burguillos said. “He coaches everything to the final inch, and he makes sure we’re all disciplined and ready to go.”
The wide receivers once again had most of their success running routes in one-on-one drills against defensive backs. Despite lacking a big guy like Kent Shelby who can go up and get a jump ball or a Tavarious Batiste who can burn defenders with his speed, the Cowboy receivers are running good routes and even getting open on post routes for big gains.
Cornerback Colby Burton said the receivers are playing as a unit, that makes them even more dangerous than if they had a go-to guy.
“It’s a lot less ‘me, me, me’ this year,” Burton said of the receivers. “Everybody’s equal. Everybody wants to play for the team. That’s what’s so good about our receivers this year. This is probably the best receivers’ corps since I’ve been here, and I’ve played with receivers like Kent Shelby and Darious Crawley. But there’s a lot of togetherness this year.”
McNeese will get back to the A.I. Ratcliff Practice Fields Tuesday morning for its first practice in full pads.
Guidry and multiple Cowboys said their looking forward to seeing defenders tackle and how the offense performs in an environment in which position players can go down.
“I think it’s going to go well,” Guidry said. “Any time you can get some live reps and just turn it all loose, there will be some people going to the ground. We’ll go between 20 to 24 live snaps mixed between the 1’s, 2’s and 3’s. We want to have 50 live snaps before we get to the scrimmage (Sunday).
Cowboys practice on the new turf in Cowboy Stadium Monday, August 6, 2018. (Tyler Nunez/American Press)