Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL ■4 •■ ML :-3pi m- ' Mi j'L '•.'^■fe* v l- :r 'Wi JL * Bfi V H S ng H >. mJ IBNf "Wta/Lf ~ ■ H|. . If ■ ■ P f« *w: BM B Mijif JM H 1 Mi _*.,. s|fli||jpw "? jp aßg %%.£*s' ’’■"' "£< ■**■“ jlt*' v ipP < 4 |lf%' * ' p■> '"~ -xvV i' */ r ' lVjl %,^ * £ <■ 11 h Smar *1 » *&y|® "W JH::;- ; -" -OS;*?.--.vis >. V Mfci Jib 'BBIBBJI UmsM Hr ■MB *&»*• V ■ rJ%M ■ «•**' -" V w •tßNtjpmp l ' Bmi1" "iTi milP >jß6r f »......,nlfflilMH—r : : .;i!»4:?. 'W&WWmwm’t S; *p courtesy Amanda Register Top: Andrew Hall (9) and Caleb Peacock (both inset) display their trophies and a sign of the times. DRIVE From page 1A of stuff in the sand pit: power stuff, endurance work. Once I get them to the point where they’re fast, then I start working on all of the acceleration drills, work ing the fast twitch muscle, change-of-direction speed, a lot of the stuff they are going to do at the combine. “Then I have a manual that has all the times of each position and what they should do at the combine. I try to keep it at that.” Since the summer began, Taylor has worked with Reid, former Northside High and current Youngstown State player Ferlando Williams, Antonio Felder and Davenport, who recent ly graduated from Warner Robins High and will join Coastal Carolina’s and Butler Community College’s football program in the fall. Taylor has also had Josh Collier (Wofford), Brandon King (Purdue) and Trahern Holden (Georgia) going through his program. So what happens in this PART From page 1B coaches. As it came to an end I thought, why end it at four? Allow me in this last (and I promise it will be the last) little installment to give you an insight into what kind of event the Peach State Pigskin media day is. Later on in the summer, the Southeastern Conference will hold its football media days. Yes, days. This is a monstrous gathering of media types all burning with questions for coaches and players from Georgia and South Carolina all the way to Arkansas and Louisiana. The Peach State media day was a nice, modest little gathering that took just a few hours. But just like what will happen with the SEC, 12 schools were represent ed. And in addition to your favorite Houston County sports writer, writers with pads and tape recorders rep resented several other news papers, the television camer as were rolling and the radio types had their microphones out and ready. This was my second trip to this yearly event. Two years ago I went to the Sports Hall of Fame to get a feel f ; •*' ‘ 1 " ’ / mH| - f^ 7 sand pit? Taylor said it is the least-popular portion of his sessions. He said they do agility work; broad jumps and lateral running in the 30-yard pit that is three-feet deep. “It’s hard to run in by itself,” said Taylor. “We’ll pull tires through that thing. If I want to find out what kind of shape they are in, I put them in the sand pit.” This may not be hap pening if not for an injury suffered by Reid while at Florida State. “He came three sum mers ago right at the end of school,” said Taylor. “I was with my track team get ting ready to go to state. He broke his leg his first year (at FSU), and they put those pins in there. Three years later they took those pins out during spring prac tice, so he didn’t go through spring. “He said, ‘Coach, I need to work with you on my speed.’ So I worked him in with my track guys. After state, it was me and Willie every day Monday through Friday for six weeks. He was in such bad shape back then because he was rehabbing. I clocked him for a major media press conference. My two favorite observations had to do with lunchtime. There was enough food left after Max Jean-Gilles, the former Georgia offensive guard and all of 340 pounds, made his way through the buffet line. Mark Richt, the Bulldogs head coach, was by far the most popular man in attendance, but the poor guy couldn’t even enjoy his meal without having on-the record questions thrown at him. (Not by me, I was sitting with the Georgia Tech peo ple.) At that time all the inter views took place in the Georgia Room downstairs at the Hall of Fame (which, by the way, is well worth mak ing a visit). This year the scene shifted to the upstairs part of the building. I can definitely rank in order of popularity the Georgia contingent of Richt, quarterback Joe Tereshinski 111 and cornerback Paul Oliver as No. 1. It was cer tainly a wait-in-line situa tion to get a chair across from Richt at his table. And I knew when my time came that I had questions no other journalist in that room had the guts to ask. “Come on, coach, how can you win SEC champion ships without beating the Championship drive that first day and he did a 4.61 in the 40. “Six weeks later, when he went back to Florida State, he ran a 4.35 electronic time and a 4.28 hand time. He came back a second sum mer last year and worked with me again. He went to the (NFL) combine this year and had the fifth fastest time overall at 4.34. Once he got the publicity of all that speed, that’s when my phone started ringing. “It keeps me in shape ... on the competitive side,” said Reid. “I have to stay tip-top at all times because (football’s) my life right now. It’s my job. “What you put into any thing is what you’re going to get out of it. I put hard work into it, I expect to get big things out of it.” “I guess when they see a guy like Willie make it, it gives them a little bit of incentive, too,” said Taylor. “They listen to me, they push themselves. These guys are D-I athletes. The workouts are pretty intense.” “This is the hardest train ing I’ve ever been through,” said Williams. “It’s just so intense. You do everything most important teams on the schedule?” Didn’t quite say it like that, but I was interested in what he would say about the losing records against Florida and Auburn in his five years. (Somehow I got it in my mind that Georgia was 1-4 against both the Gators and Tigers. That’s right about Florida, but the Dogs are 2- 3 against Auburn, and Richt corrected me on that point). My other big question had to do with the attitudes of most members of the Bulldog Nation. What does he think is most important for Georgia football, wins against specific teams or the championship? That interview story ran in the July 5 edition, and he gave some fair answers. Georgia hasn’t had a domi nating run in Richt’s five years, but has done what’s necessary to win two SEC titles and play for another. And I feel he believes he was hired to win championships. As for the No. 2 most inter viewed coach, I would say that was Brian VanGorder, the first-year Georgia Southern boss formerly of the Bulldog staff. Patrick Nix, son of Northside head football coach Conrad Nix, repre sented Georgia Tech. What a great opportunity to give you a story from the son’s SPOUTS courtesy/Amanda Register Above: the Marlins recently captured the 2006 championship for their age group. They are: Back row from, Coach Mike Barnhart, D.J. Butts, Coach Jesse Lockhart, Tavoris Germany, Timothy Billoups, Chris Dierking, Andrew Hall, Jason Bryant and Coach Kerry Butts. Front: Matt Barnhart, Austin Kelley, Chris West, Caleb Peacock and Anthony Lockhart. Not pictured: Brett Becker. Left: The ballgame is over... The team celebrates. you have to to get your 40 time down. At the next level, a lot of teams look at your 40 time, your hips and your feet work. Coach Taylor has the drills that can get you there. I love being out here and I thank him for it every day.” Taylor is simulating a drill that Reid will be put through when Reid returns to Steelers camp on July 27. He said there will be a test of 14 40-yard dashes which have 32 seconds of rest in between. Taylor plans next to increase that to 60 yards because he said overtraining will make the 40 easier for them. How important is speed? Taylor recalls a story from Reid about the combine in which he said the stands were jam-packed during the 40-yard dashes. Reid said, once that was over and the players moved on to jump ing drills, the stands were empty. How noticeable is speed? Taylor again cites a quote from Reid about what goes through a player’s mind during a game. When Reid is facing somebody on the field during live action, the quote is, ‘I can’t tell how much he bench presses, but can tell point-of-view on arguably the county’s most successful coach today. That one you may have caught in the issue for the weekend of July 1. Why wasn’t Chan Gailey, the Yellow Jacket head coach, there? He wasn’t there two years ago, either. It might be because he hates the media and tries to deal with us as little as possible. I only say that because I worked in his hometown for six years and pretty much heard him say so at more than one speak ing occasion. Sad to say, but after the big three all the other small schools hardly got any atten tion at all. I’m sure they are all compensated for their time, so the trip’s not a total Goodwill NEEDS your Donations! Donation Locations • 2209 Moody Road • 115 Margie Drive • 1355 Sam Nunn Blvd. ■ Galleria Mall - 2922 Watson Blvd. When you donate your clothing and household items to Goodwill Industries, the merchandise will be processed by trainees and resold at Goodwill stores to fund job training and placement sendees for people with barriers to employment. All donations to Goodwill Industries are tax-deductible. www.goodwillworks.org 9 goodwill Buildini' lives, families, and communities-one job at a time! how fast he is.’ “It’s all about speed, no matter the sport,” said Taylor. The intangibles Reid need ed to have those 80-yard plus punt returns in Florida State’s last two games are also different than what it takes to simply run a 40 straight ahead. “When I talked to coach Bowden at Florida State, and when I was reading some stuff on the Internet about Willie, the thing everyone likes about him so much is his hips,” said Taylor. “How quick he is in his hips. When Willie was here, he was one of the few guys I’ve seen who could run full speed, change direction and never decelerate. That’s why I’ll remind these guys all the time, especially in our direc tion drills, of changing those hips. “The key to running fast is in the hips and the core sec tion. That’s why we’ll end a workout with the big 10: 10 pushups and 10 sit-ups, then nine and all the way down. You have to get that fast-twitch muscle reacting quick, then you have to get the reps up to where the muscle has memory. You waste. Before leaving I had a cou ple of other casual conversa tions with some gentlemen from those other schools during the lunch break. One was with Theo Lemon, the new head coach at Savannah State. He’s from Ohio, made a lot of coaching stops, but TIRED OF STARING AT THE SAME FOUR WALLS? Enjoy the freedom, respect and independence of becoming an over-the-road dnver at Schneider National. • Company-provided CDL training for qualified candidates • $34,500-$57,500 (depending on experience) • Home Run program -17 weeks off yearly • SIGN-ON BONUS MAY APPLY Apply Online @ schneiderjobs.com Or call 1-800-44-PRIDE (1-800-447-7433) TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2006 have to train a muscle to be fast. Everything we do is fast. We don’t do anything less than 80 per-cent. When you have guys like this, it makes it easy to do.” Taylor is a former college football player himself at the University of Georgia in the mid-1980s. A typical train ing session will last no lon ger than 90 minutes. “I have the time to do it,” said Taylor, who does this training strictly on his own time. “I guess the payment I receive is watching these guys play on Saturdays and hopefully on Sundays. I know with Willie in the ACC championship game when he returned that punt, and in the Orange Bowl when he returned that one ... I talked with him right after the Orange Bowl, and he was pretty happy and I was happy, too. “That was all speed. Willie worked hard, and that’s what I tell these guys. When everybody calls me and asks, ‘Coach, can you get me fast like you did Willie Reid?’ I tell them you have to work like Willie Reid did. His work ethic is way ahead of anyone I’ve ever trained.” said his father always talked about growing up in Perry, Georgia. The other was with the head coach of the new foot ball team at Shorter College in Rome. He said he has 140 players ... not one from Houston County. “We need some,” he said. 9B