Cowboys gearing up for scrimmage
{{tncms-inline account=”TylerAmPress” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/McNeese?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#McNeese</a> defense currently getting warmed up for practice this morning <a href="https://t.co/7YknOKLGXx">pic.twitter.com/7YknOKLGXx</a></p>&mdash; Tyler Nunez (@TylerAmPress) <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerAmPress/status/1030098388308697088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”1030098388308697088″ type=”twitter”}}
The McNeese State football team completed its final practice of fall camp Thursday morning as the Cowboys prepare for their camp-ending scrimmage Saturday morning.
For the first time all week, the defense found its drive during live-team drills, making big play after big play that only ramped up the energy.
At a couple points, the atmosphere got a bit too heated as small fights broke out, but nothing more serious than a shoving contest that was quickly shut down by teammates.
“Well, we had some fights,” said head coach Lance Guidry. “I guess it’s to be expected. It was hot out here today, and they knew it was the last one so they were trying to compete against each other.”
When practice went live, Guidry said the defense looked its best. Big plays came from every position, like a sack by defensive end Chris Livings, a big stop on a running back by linebacker BJ Blunt or pass break-ups by cornerbacks Colby Burton and Darion Dunn.
The big day from the defense came at the end of week that saw the offense respond to a tough scrimmage with a chip on its shoulder for three solid days of practice.
“I think anybody that plays for McNeese under coach Guidry plays with a chip on their shoulder,” said offensive line coach Ben Norton. “If someone’s not playing with a chip on their shoulder on the offensive line, they’re not going to be here long.”
Norton went on to say that last year’s offensive line “scratched the surface” of what this year’s squad is capable of. Now he believes it can “make a dent,” which means the unit still has a long way to go, but it’s made progress.
He went on to say there is heavy competition at multiple spots up front, which indicates the Cowboys will in fact be deeper up front than they were last year, if that wasn’t made clear by their increased numbers this fall.
The Cowboys will take it easy today as they go bowling during the morning hours and spend their afternoon walking through their plan for the scrimmage, Guidry said.
It marks the second day off practice since McNeese began fall camp more than two weeks ago, and Guidry said he hopes that means they’re healthy and ready for the scrimmage.
The players will get out in Cowboy Stadium at 9:20 a.m. Saturday with the scrimmage scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. Guidry said it will be a relatively light scrimmage compared to the first one of fall camp because of the number of live reps the Cowboys have taken.