Aug. 17, 2005
News & Notes:
In a shortened practice under the lights of Hancock Stadium, the Illinois State football worked out for its second practice of the day. The practice included 18, five-minute periods and centered on 3rd-and-long situations.
At the completion of practice, the Redbirds ran three ladder sprints and head coach Denver Johnson chose junior linebacker Cameron Siskowic to "break down" practice.
The Redbird Address
Following practice, head coach Denver Johnson addressed the team for nearly a half hour in the center of the field. "We talked about being focused when you're on the field," Johnson said. "When you are out here, you have to be out here. You have to be focused in on the task at hand and you have to defeat that peripheral opponent that distracts you from the task at hand. When school starts you have to handle going to class, lifting weights, going to study hall, going to practice and trying to squeeze a little social life in there too. We didn't do a very good job of that tonight and hopefully we will do better tomorrow."
Brockway's Back
After bruising his thumb on his throwing hand in the morning practice, Kevin Brockway returned to take the majority of the snaps during the team drill with sophomore Luke Drone. According to head coach Denver Johnson there is still a competition among all five quarterbacks and the position has not been decided, but he is hoping to make a decision at the completion of camp.
Quotable
"We got after them pretty good on Tuesday and again this morning, so we wanted to slack back a little bit physically," head coach Denver Johnson said. "We wanted to let guys try to catch up physically and take a little bit of wear and tear off the shoulders. We have a bunch of guys that are sore and still have a few guys out."
The Barbershop
Senior cornerback Ramon Barber opened the team period by picking off Luke Drone's pass on the first play from scrimmage. In addition to Barber's pick, Ronnie Tate, Jarek Thomas and James Stevenson III all had quarterback sacks for the defense.
