Congratulations to linebacker Antwan Thomas (Hawkinsville,Ga.) and defensive end Adam McKinney (Augusta, Ga.) on making the All-State college team. As a coach you swell up with joy when you have players like Adam and Antwan who perform well in the classroom also. Adam is a pre-med major with a 3.7 GPA and Antwan is a business major with a 3.6 GPA. Antwan became the leading tackler in PC history this year.
Our grades were posted for the semester and we had 32 players with a 3.0 GPA in the fall. I am very proud of our performance. Top performers in each grade level were:
Freshmen, Iouli Burroughs – 3.86
Sophomore, Jared Tavernier – 3.71
Junior, Matt Freeman – 3.88
Senior, Adam McKinney – 3.7
We have some players who need to improve their grades and must get on the ball in the spring to be eligible. It has always been my goal to never lose a player to being academically ineligible. I see no excuse for not making progress toward graduation.
Congratulations to our men’s basketball team on their success this year. We recently defeated University of California-Davis. Our women’s basketball team played a great game against Stetson yesterday in front of a packed gym of elementary students. The local elementary and middle school students were treated to a “field trip” to the game...wow that is an awesome idea.
Christmas Break (12/16)
Many have asked about the 2009 schedule...we have one more game to find on the 2009 schedule. Holly Cook (our administrative assistant) and I have been working hard getting everything complete. Lots of calls and emails go into building a schedule; more work than one would think. Our schedule will be another tough one. During the transition it is important for everyone to realize we are building. There is a four-year transition period for a reason.
We have been on the road working on some recruiting. Our team is on Christmas break after taking exams last week. I look forward to getting our grade sheet on all of our players on Wednesday. I am hoping we keep up our pace in excelling in the classroom. Last semester we had over 38 players with a 3.0 GPA or better. Not seeing or working with your team until Jan 6 (4 weeks) is very tough on a coach like me who likes “coaching”. My calendar still has not adjusted to the deal of not working with your team as a coach. I talked to one college coach today and he said he has not seen his team since December 1.
It was great spending some time with Coach Chuck Jordan of Conway HS last week. We used to have some battles in those state title games in 02 and 03. He has done a tremendous job of building their program. I was very impressed with their facility and the care he and his coaches put in their players.
I enjoyed going to the Carolina Panthers game on Sunday. Chas was selected to participate in a halftime throwing contest against a NC quarterback so we were able to get some family time in and catch the game. The Panthers put on a good show and I am amazed at how the NFL players wear very little to no padding on their lower bodies... speed kills! The game was great, checking out Jay Cutler’s arm was cool, the throwing of Chas at halftime was good, but the 90-minute wait in traffic after the game was awful. I will never park in the last parking lot on a dead end street again ever!
Road Warriors (12/4)
After being on the road recruiting for 3 days, it was great to get in the office to clear the desk off. I was also able to see our off-season workouts that Coach Eric Cash has going already. The team seems to have some enthusiasm and energy as we get prepared for another tough schedule in 09 with our opening game at Furman.We will be a very young team but I have always enjoyed coaching inexperienced teams that are hungry to achieve.
Recruiting is going well as we have 7 coaches (NCAA limit) out on the road. I hope we can hang on to our commitments and land a very good signing class.Recruiting at our level is a science while keeping the budget in place and trying to cover all of your bases.The home visits can be fun and entertaining.The food can be very tasty, and I had some of the best chicken salad ever!!I wonder if it is a recruiting violation if I get the recipe and give it to Paulette.
We are working on a new website.We have not completed it yet but you can get a sneak preview at:
The web address will change over to BobbyBentey.com when we finalize it. Check it out and let me know if you like the new design.
Congrats to the Blue Hose basketball team on their victories over Army and Coastal Carolina...who said we could not do this DI thing??
Go Blue Hose!!!
A Rewarding Season (11/26)
Now that our season is over we begin our focus on recruiting and getting faster and stronger. Our team will miss our 15 seniors and we wish success to them. We will have our awards banquet in Belk Auditorium at 7 pm on Saturday, January 24th. The event (The Presbys) will be a unique video awards ceremony that will feature highlights from the season and prolific clips all of our award winners. The event will be free and open to the public so we hope we can fill up Belk Auditorium with family and friends of the team.
Our 30 red shirt freshmen were tested in the weight room on Monday and Tuesday. Numerous players set personal records in the bench press, power clean and squat. Overall I was impressed with their progress. I can see many of the redshirts battling for starting spots in the spring. Putting together several strong recruiting classes will help us build the program. I am already rejuvenated after watching our young players lift this week.
Our season was filled with highs and lows. As a team we must learn to prepare more effectively. We were a very focused team vs Liberty and great things happened for us. At other times we did not play with the expected passion level that is needed. I can assure you that we will be a tougher more physical football team when we line up in 2009 vs Furman on opening day. Our entire spring practice schedule will be filled with fundamental drills and collisions for us to be a better team. We will be a physical team in 2009.
Congrats to five seniors for earning Big South All-Conference awards for the 2008 season. Adam McKinney (Augusta, Ga./Augusta Christian) and Antwan Thomas (Hawkinsville, Ga./Hawkinsville) received first team all-conference honors on defense, while Brandon Clark (Duluth, Ga./Buford), Anthony McKnight (Sumter, S.C./Crestwood) and Bryson Summers (West Columbia, S.C./Airport) garnered second-team all-conference recognition. Antwan Thomas (who owns a 3.63 GPA) was also named to the Big South Academic All-Conference Team.
Thomas received five first-place votes and 14 points in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year, giving him runner-up status to Gardner-Webb’s Jeffrey Williams. With it being our first year of being eligible for All-Conference awards I am proud of our accomplishments and appreciative that our other coaches in the Big South honored our players.
Congratulations to freshman cornerback Justin Bethel for earning Freshman of the week in the Big South Conference for his performance vs VMI.
Looking Ahead (11/20)
My hat goes off to Coach David Bennett and his Coastal Carolina team for playing a great game against us. We had our chances but lost 21-13. I am very proud of the way our defense played especially in the second half (gave up no points and only 130 yards)! As our defense develops our program will increase. You build a championship program with solid bone crushing defenses.
Our offense moved the ball against Coastal but we failed in 3rd downs (4 of 14) and point production. I would like to see our quarterback make some better reads in the passing game in our final game this week against VMI. Our team continued to fight after being down 21-7. I want to thank Jim Simpson for organizing a tremendous Youth Day for game day. We had a great crowd and we are making progress with our fan participation at our games. Our atmosphere on game day matters in recruiting. We were able to get 3 commitments after the game on Saturday. I am sure the atmosphere and the positive momentum we are building about our program gives us leverage. Thanks for the support.
I want to thank Kyle Young at Clemson and our administration for making the Clemson game happen. We will be playing the Tigers on Sep 11, 2010. The game will help us in so many ways and I appreciate everyone sticking together on the vision. We are increasing Presbyterian College as we more exposure to the program. The Clemson game will be wonderful recruiting and motivational tool.
Congrats to all the playoff teams and good luck in the next round.
HUGE WEEKEND (11/14)
Friday begins a huge weekend for Presbyterian College. On Friday at 12 pm we will make a big announcement. I think all of the PC family will be excited about it.
I want to thank those of you who have responded to our football players association idea. You should be receiving more info about our first meeting in February. I am motivated about the concept and got the idea after talking to Derrick Smalls one of my former teammates at PC. He is a lawyer now out in California and doing well.
Our game against Coastal is going to be exciting and we are expecting a huge crowd. Come join the fun as we take on Coastal Carolina at 1:30 PM on Saturday.
My wife and I enjoyed seeing the movie Fireproof tonight. I recommend you to go see it!
THANK YOU! (11/6)
Thanks to all who sent a congratulations note to us.Our win over Liberty was one of the best in school history.I am hoping our program can use it as a landmark.We have a long way to go but the victory allows our fans, players, and coaches to see that we can have success in Division I.
I hope all of our fans will check out the Inside Blue Hose football TV show on Saturday at 12 pm.The show will recap all the highlights from our big win our big win against Liberty and preview the CSU game.In the Upstate, you can watch the show on Charter cable channel 9 (TV 62).The show is replayed on Charter cable channel 247 on Sunday evenings at 8 pm.
After talking with a few of alumni on Saturday, we are trying to establish a PC former players association.Mike Bolchoz has agreed to assist me in getting a group together.If you are former player and want to assist us please let me or Mike know of your interest.
What a Game!!! (11/3/08) Wow! What a game...It was an unbelievable feeling when looked up at the scoreboard on Saturday afternoon, “Blue Hose 31, Liberty – 28”. I am incredibly proud of our coaches and players. I want to thank all the parents of our players for sending your son to PC. We made history and we had a great time making it happen. We are building something special and I am so proud our players were able to feel the excitement of a major accomplishment. Many recruits were able to witness what was one of the biggest football victories in PC history. I want to thank our student body and fans as we were able to feel your energy in the 4th quarter. I hope we can have an even bigger atmosphere for home finale against Coastal on Nov 15th.
Liberty is a very good football team and everything fell into place for a Blue Hose victory. Last year they were the only team to dominate us and we made it a point to be better prepared this year. As a high school coach I never went up against a true 3-4 defense like they run so I spent a lot of the off-season on how to attack the 3-4 defense. Our plan worked very well and our players executed almost to perfection. Our coaches on both sides of the ball as well as special teams (we blocked a punt and averaged over 25 yards per KO return) did a fine job preparing our players.
For the first time ever, we swept Big South Player of the Week voting with standout performances by three of our student-athletes. On offense Redshirt Freshman quarterback Brandon Miley (Wilmington, NC/J.T. Hoggard), in only his third start, Brandon threw for 301 yards and two TD passes – his second consecutive game with over 300 yards passing. On defense Senior DB, Anthony McKnight (Sumter, SC/Crestwood) led the team with 9 tackles and an additional 3 assists. Special Teams player of the week was sophomore Place Kicker Cam Miller (Lyman, SC/Byrnes) who kicked the game winning 28 yard field goal along with 4 PATs. Other notable performers were the play of offensive line and Chetyuanne Reeder. On Defense we had some big plays out of Bryce Smiley and Antwan Thomas. Our punter Bryson Summers nailed 3 punts inside the 20 yard line.
As I mentioned earlier, this win was a major accomplishment for the program we are building here at Presbyterian. Notably it was the 1st Big South victory here in Clinton as well as the 1st defeat of a nationally ranked Division I opponent in PC Football history. In current statistics, the Blue Hose are leading the league in forced fumbles, net punting, and passing offense. We are making progress in many areas and hopefully we can maintain our momentum!!
Congrats to the PC volleyball team for their defeat of Winthrop on Saturday and to our women’s soccer team on defeating Charleston Southern. I am looking forward to watching the men’s basketball team take on the Duke Blue Devils on Monday night on ESPNU.
We all should be proud... It was a great weekend to be a BLUE HOSE !!!
Excited About Getting Back to Work (10/31) After our open date I am excited about playing a game this week. We host #20 ranked Liberty at Bailey Memorial Stadium at 1:30 PM on Saturday. The Blue Hose will be taking on our 4th nationally ranked opponent of this season. Our team is ready for the challenge and we will play hard against Liberty. This season has brought on many challenges and our guys have fought through much adversity.
Congrats to Jesse Painter (offense), Antwan Thomas (Defense), Bryson Summers (Special Teams) and Justin Bethel (Young Gun) for being chosen as leaders of our team. I am proud of all of our young men as we strive to build our program.
Thanks to the Greenwood Area touchdown for the great hospitality. I enjoyed seeing the leadership of Dr Robert Saul at the club as he made sure the club was focused on honoring the local talented football players.
Our team looks forward to participating in the Red Ribbon Parade at Clinton Elementary. Thanks to Bell Street Middle School in Clinton for allowing us to mentor the middle school students. Over 40 of our players will be role models to the youngsters and we hope to get all of them to our game against Coastal Carolina. Getting our guys involved with these type of events makes my day.
A big congrats to our women’s soccer team as we defeated VMI in overtime 3-2. As a Blue Hose family we must celebrate each step of success in our DI journey! I look forward to seeing some of the players from the 1948 Blue Hose football team as they celebrate their 40th reunion this weekend. Hopefully we can make some progress in gaining some ground on establishing a friends of PC football group or a PC football players association !!
Go Hose!
Playing with More Emotion (10/22)
Our open week comes at the best of times. We will focus on our fundamentals and try to get better on some things as we prepare for our final 4 games. We have a third of our season remaining to improve as a team. My goal is for us to be better after the VMI game (last game) than we are right now. The only way for us to get better is to go out to practice with a positive attitude to improve daily. Our schedule has been extremely tough and our team lacks some swagger. It is our job as coaches to instill some confidence in our young men.
As we break down the Gardner-Webb game we must align better on defense. We are making too many mistakes on defense by missing assignments and missing tackles. On offense we killed ourselves with turnovers- 2 fumbles and 4 interceptions. We moved the ball effectively all night (80 plays, 28 first downs and 492 yards) but we must put the ball in the endzone! Gardner Webb’s defense was very athletic and powerful. The defensive staff at Gardner Webb does a great job with their schemes- they held Georgia Tech to 10 points and 220 yards. Our team must play with more emotion and passion. At practice today we worked on showing more emotion- celebrating together, running on and off the field, and simply playing with some fire in our eyes or in the words of Frank Howard “blowing some snot bubbles”. I will make one promise to our Blue Hose faithful we will play with more emotion in our remaining 4 games.
We must continue to believe and not lose faith in what we are building. Our guys must continue to stick together when others want to place blame. We are just beginning this challenge of the transition and we should all realize the difficulties they remain. I know we have a lot of catching up to do but that is why you accept a challenge.
We need all Blue Hose fans to be in the stadium as we host Liberty on November 1. It is parents weekend and we need a stadium full of fans to help us take on nationally ranked Liberty.
A Few Things I Have Learned (10/17) As a coach we control how our team plays. We must be accountable for the performance of the team on and off the field. 18 games into this new career I have learned very much. After playing 3 of the top 8 teams in the country this year, I know we have some catching up to do. Midway through my second year I will list a few things I have learned on job:
1) To deal with adversity. Since taking the job at PC on Jan 17, 2007 we have had 15 surgeries, at least 15 different lineup changes (18 games) due to injuries, staff changes, the death of a player, and 2 heart breaking losses. The list does not match Abraham Lincoln’s but we know adversity very well.
2) We are having some success on and off the field with our team but we are not where we want to be. As a transition program we should celebrate every bit of success we achieve.
3) To never ever take kicking FGs for granted
4) Recruit depth at all positions especially DB and DL
5) The world economy can effect coaching
6) Having great assistant coaches is priceless
7) That regardless what you have you need more
8) My first 18 games reinforces the concept that Defenses win games
9) Our special teams have been really special at times and fun to coach. As a college coach you get to spend more time on special teams.
10) We must get a full time equipment manager – as a high school coach I never dealt with equipment and wash but now as a college coach I do. We must fix that issue as quickly as possible.
11) In general fans do not travel well in FCS football , attendance figures are inflated and gate receipts are low
12) College players are just like high school players - they want to be coached hard and loved on
13) Seeing the Blue Hose team wearing Blue Sox is cool
14) College coaching is more recruiting than anything else
15) Recruiting is fun but a lot of hard work
16) Since we don’t have our players year round we must be creative with our training (I am used to developing our players through year round training and at PC we do not have our players with us through out the year). We must find a way to get our guys on campus all year.
17) I must leave the office and get home to my family
Making Some Progress (10/13) After winning two games in a row and getting our record up to 3-4, our team has made some progress in some areas. With a FG and a few pass break ups we could easily be 4-3...not bad considering our schedule. Our team continues to hang tough with some fight and I am proud of them! As a coach you want your guys to be successful and feel the thrill of positive momentum. On Saturday against NC Central we were rolling in the 3rd quarter and had a chance to close the door with a 28-10 lead. We had the ball inside the 20 ready to score and missed 2 easy plays to go up 35-10. We had several opportunities to score again and Central did not give up. With us leading the game 28-24 and Central having the ball on our 1 yard line, I could not believe it!! You have always heard to never give up until it is over...our game was a teachable moment in never ever give up!! I called timeout with 55 seconds left hoping that we could have a goaline stand. They only had 1 timeout so they only had a couple to plays to run. Our defense forced a fumble with LB Antwan Thomas (Hawkinsville, Ga) diving over the top to stifle the QB as they tried a QB sneaked and DT Brian McDaniel (Sumter, SC) came up with the ball. We gained possession at the 1 with approx 50 seconds remaining. I thought about taking a safety but with only a 4 point lead we decided to run a QB sneak to seal the win. I will always remember how our team refused to lose and never give up. I hope the ending of the game helps us as we build our program and stick together. It was very rewarding to beat Central because they are a transition team just like us (moving from Division 2 into DI).
In talking with Coach Rison (head coach of Central) before the game many people do not realize the growing pains you go through as a transition program. It is a very demanding deal for all involved to take on this challenge of DI athletics. We have 2 more years of the transition and we need to celebrate every bit of success we can achieve! No need for pity parties for what we don’t have we must find ways to get it done.
I know for me personally the transition has been tough and I am learning everyday. College coaching and high school coaching are 2 totally different monsters. We are having some success on and off the field and continue to give PC everything we have to build the team.
We have 5 games remaining and hope to compete well in our Big South Conference games. I think the Big South Conference is better overall this year compared to last year. Our team did well in the Big South last year and hope to duplicate a few upsets. We play at Gardner-Webb on Saturday with kickoff set for 6 PM.
GO BLUE HOSE!
God Bless the Magdic family (10/3) Our thoughts and prayers have been with Coach Phil Magdic and his family as Coach lost his mother this week. I am so glad I was able to meet her as Mag and I have been friends through the years. My trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will always be remembered by our trip to 3 Rivers stadium to see the Steelers play and his mom’s potato salad. It was the best ever. It was so good that on my 3rd trip helping- I ate it right out of the bowl !!
God Bless the Magdic family.
We are getting ready for North Greenville. It is our homecoming and we look forward to having a great game. Dan Eckstein class of ’69 will be our circle meeting speaker. Dan played for the Green Bay Packers and wrote the book 41st Packer. I look forward to hearing his ’68.
I would like to thank Coach Dick Sheridan for coming up to PC and spending some time with me this week as we study our program. Coach Sheridan was able to build championship teams at Furman and NC State. I respect what he did because he was a high school coach and made the jump to college. His son Bobby and I went to PC together. He gave me some great ideas for the program and more importantly gave me confidence that we are doing things the right way.
Come Out Slinging (9/30) After digesting a tough loss against a very good Appalachian State team, I know we are making progress in some areas. Our football team got on the bus on Saturday morning with a commitment to compete in one of the largest stages for a PC football game ever. 30,000 fans saw a Blue Hose team fight hard and midway through the 3rd quarter we were driving for a go ahead score. If we catch a 3rd down post route and kick the PAT we go up 21-20. As we all know that did not happen but we were in position to be successful against the 3 time defending national champs. We can never be satisfied but we must point out the positives as we build. We knew when we set up this schedule for 08 that we were in over our heads but it is behind us now. We must move forward.
Our defense played better in the first half against App. We must get better defensively as we grow. Gaining over 400 yards and running 80 plays against App was a positive. We missed at least 2 more TDs and need to score more points. Our punter and punt team are doing a great job. We allowed negative 8 yds on punt returns Saturday. We are creating many lost yardage plays on defense but must FINISH the series with a stop or turnover. Completing 35 passes and having a bunch of first downs was another positive. We lead the Big South in first downs – those must turn into bigger plays and TDs.
The process we are in will not happen over night. We are developing a program to beat Appalachian State- that is our goal. We will have nay-sayers. David had doubters (King Saul and his brother) as he approached a Giant. We are facing many giants right now and we need to use preparation to get us ready for battle. We cannot try to be someone else- we need to build it the PC way. David tried to fit Saul’s armor (it did not fit!). Our way needs to be unique to PC. We are an academic institution first and it will always be that way. Our graduation rate for football players is 95 %...the average FCS graduation rate is 55%! I say that to mention that academics are a priority at PC. All institutions do not have that philosophy in regards to recruiting and admission standards. One size does not fit all. We need to have confidence that we can do make it in Division I and that we will have faith. David had faith and believed he would be successful. We also need to rally ALL of our resources and pool them together and put them in a pile. We are not big enough to be scattered. David had a plan- he had 5 stones and he put them in a bag. He gathered extra stones because he planned for other battles. We threw a stone Saturday at a large giant but did not knock him out. We must reach back in the bag for more and come out slinging.
Replaying Things Over in My Mind (9/23) After games whether we win or lose sometimes it is difficult to sleep. As a coach and player I have always replayed things in my mind and wonder what if. As a player several games come to mind ...as a player my senior year against Gaffney when I threw an interception on a middle screen and Gaffney won by one point and our state championship game when we lost on a last second td after leading the entire game. As a coach several games have crawled into my brain...last years Charleston Southern game and a playoff game loss in 2001 against Conway. All 4 of the games we should have been won but it just did not work out. In all the games a few plays going another way by an inch or two make a huge difference.
The Western Carolina game on Saturday will be one of those games that get replayed over and over. As a coach I always want to be accountable for my team’s performance. I thought we put our guys in a position to win the game. We did not make a crucial play on a few occasions and came up a few feet short. I was thinking we were going to score a td on our last drive to go up by 5 points. With a 3rd and inches on the 5 yard line we call for a freeze play that is used to draw the defense offsides- our center snaps the ball to the QB thinking the nose guard jumped offsides. Our QB took a knee thinking we would have an automatic first down but the refs did not throw a penalty flag. The result was a 4th down with about 1 minute on the clock. I decided to kick a FG and we missed it. Wow what a frustrating feeling!! A few other plays would have made a difference also: Western scored on a 4th down and goal fade route in the endzone with our defensive back in great position. We blocked a Western field goal and the ball bounced right into a Blue Hose players hands for an easy TD run back but we drop it and fall on the ball. We had a crucial second half pass incompletion that was going to be a huge gain but we did not connect. There were 2 more plays that I think were huge turnarounds that are on replay in my brain.
Bottom line we must move forward through the storm. We will survive. After my worst ever feeling in coaching after the Elon game, I can say the pity party is over. Our guys stepped up against Western Carolina and proved that we can make this Division I move when our backs are against the wall. I am proud of our young men for fighting back. We must continue to win some small battles together and stick together. The Division I move is not going to be easy. Every bit of success must be celebrated.
Congrats to punter Bryson Summers (Airport HS-Columbia, SC) for being PC’s first ever Big South player of the Week. His 43 yard average earned him Special teams player of the week.
I always want our team to play on the edge and play with emotion I thought we had some energy on Saturday. We must carry it over into every remaining game. I want to say thanks to those who wrote me a note this past week and this weekend. We all need encouragement as we make this new journey together. I hope you liked the garnet jerseys.
Picking Up The Pieces and Moving Forward (9/16) Well what do you say after a game like we had on Saturday. Do you quit the blog? No ... you pick up the pieces and move forward. You go out to practice and try to get better. We completely destroyed the blue print of how to play the game against Elon. Granted they are the best team that I have seen in my 14 games as a college coach but we were not a very fundamental team on Saturday night. I take complete responsibility for it and our players must accept accountability for their role. One great thing this great game has taught me is a work ethic. We will work to improve and demand more from all involved.
We will not accept how we played and we must do a better job as coaches and players. Lip service to the subject is not a remedy. We had too many distractions last week and we must re-gain our focus. I am preparing for us to recapture our spirit against Western Carolina and for our team to get some confidence. We have 9 more games remaining on our schedule and we must win some daily battles.
After having some success in our first year I think some were thinking we have arrived. This past week humbled us all. Life can do that to us. Our schedule is much tougher than last year and with 4 nationally ranked teams in our first 7 games we are playing the best in the country. We took the job knowing we would be challenged...now the tent strings are being stretched! The Blue Hose will not accept losing and we will strive to get better.
I remember my first year as a head coach we got beat 70-6...I vowed to get better and reminded our team of how far we have to go. It was something I will always remember – years later we beat the same team. We must keep the faith and win daily battles as we make this transition. Our players know that we expect more and I look forward to seeing how we respond this week against a very good Western Carolina team. They had a chance to beat Liberty and they are playing very hard and hungry right now.
As a leader we must rally the team this week. The mark of a man is not when he is on top of the mountain but when he is in the valley.
A Tough Week (9/12) Getting ready for Elon this week was tough. We have to learn to practice better against one another (offense vs defense). Elon runs a similar offense to ours so it was easy to simulate our scout team this week. As we make progress I am hoping we can remain physical as possible in group settings but in team be able to remain off the ground healthy.
Our TV show is up and running now and with a true producer the looks very good. Tim Bachman does a great job with the effects and hosting. Brad Teal is also doing a fine job with the editing and graphics. You can catch our TV show Inside Blue Hose Football every Saturday at 12 pm on Charter cable channel 9 and TV 62 in the upstate. Now that we have a true production of the show I hope to expand it back to CSS next year. In a few weeks we should have the shows up on my new upgraded website...more details later.
Elon is a tough opponent this week. It is a tremendous challenge as Elon is a nationally ranked team and we are making strides in Division 1. Playing this type of team will only help us as we make every effort to be a contender in the Big South Conference. They are very athletic especially at receiver. I am impressed with their quarterback as well. They are also good on defense and give you numerous looks in the secondary. I look forward to seeing one of my old players from Byrnes Ned Cuthbertson who is starting for them at offensive tackle. Elon is very good special teams also. We must do a good job covering our kicks and protecting our punter. You can listen to the game at www.wlbg or www.gobluehose.com
Fans can pay $4.95 and watch it via the internet on Elon’s official athletic website at www.elonphoenix.com.
Excited About Getting On The Field (9/5) It is the night before our home opener and our team is ready to go. We have had a good week of practice and I am excited about getting onto our home field.
Our TV show will make its debut on Saturday at 12 pm. The show can be viewed on WYCW 62 which is Charter cable channel 9. I hope all the Blue Hose fans will tune in and thank our sponsors. I want to thank Tim Bachman for making our show happen and adding a professional touch to the program. After watching the show if you would like for us to add a segment let me know. I hope to make the fan very interactive for our fans. Check out the show and let me know what you think...Thanks for your support.
Remember Monday night we have our live call in radio show on WLGB 860 AM...you can hear it live on www.wlbg.com on Mondays at 7 -8 pm.
Thoughts After Wofford Game (9/1) We have played our first game and we know where we need to improve. I am hoping our team’s greatest improvement comes this week in practice. Going into the Wofford game we knew our game plan was to throw the ball quick and get the ball to the flats as soon as possible. Our plan worked extremely well as we were able to run 80 plays with 22 first downs and over 350 yards. The problem came in converting the yards into scores (2 for 5 in the red zone) and 2 very crucial turnovers. If we score when we fumble on the Wofford 10 yard line we go up 21-10. But we did not and ended up losing our momentum. Our defense played much better in the second half and Wofford’s offense creates problems due the OL size and execution of the option. Their perimeter blocking was superior also.
We should not be satisfied with the loss and never accept losing. Our team is better than we were at this point last year. We must build on the positives and move forward. I want to personally thank all of our fans for coming out supporting our Blue Hose. I saw Wofford play a PLAYOFF game last year against Richmond and we had more fans than Richmond. We actually may have had more fans than Wofford !! Thanks again ...our players appreciate your cheers.
Things we must learn from game 1:
Improve our tackling
Score in the red zone
Improve the pace of the offense
Improve on 4th down – 0 for 3 with 1 critical blocking mistake on 4th and inches.
Improve our screen blocking
Defend cut blocking better on defense
Create more tackles for loss
I think we can take many positives from the game:
Bryson Summer’s 3 punts for an average of 47 yards per punt
Offensive line played well in pass protection- 2 sacks on 59 pass plays
We ran 80 plays
Beautiful 14 play drive in the 4th qtr to make the score 31-21
3 passing TDs
351 yards passing
Only 3 penalties
Our 3rd down conversions rate was great with a 9 for 16 conversion rate
Defense forced 3 turnovers
Defense allowed only 5 of 13 3rd down conversions
The 14-0 energetic burst to begin the game had me truly “pumped”-maybe it was the blue socks!!
You can catch highlights from the Wofford game and a preview of our next game on Inside Blue Hose Football with host Tim Bachmann on Wed night on Channel 242 and every Saturday at 12 pm on channel 62 or charter cable channel 9. You can also join our radio call in show on am 860 or www.wlbg.com on Monday night at 7 -8 pm. I also hope you will join us as we will honor Larry Thomas in our first home game of the year on Saturday at 1:30.
Many people told me that the fans were excited at the Wofford game and I am hoping it carries over to our first home game.
Hanging On Very Tight (8/29) Things continue to roll along as we prepare for Wofford. Practice was extremely humid on Thursday after all the rain. We packed the game plan in tight in Friday’s practice and made sure all of our audibles were ready. Wofford’s defensive front, especially their nose guard creates issues with us and our offensive line has a challenge in their front. Their secondary is almost entirely new so do not what to expect. I think our defense will be better this year. You can be real good and defense but Wofford’s offense can still create some problems for you. They do a great job with their attack. They average 340 yds per game rushing - 2nd in the country last year. If you go to see sleep on the pass Andy Strickland their star receiver will slip behind your secondary. Andy was a great player for his dad at Gaffney and I look forward to seeing him again (just not playing against him)!
When we took the job at PC we asked for a stretching of our tent strings. We want the program to grow and I learned of a couple of things today that illustrate our growth. We now have a radio network – two stations jumped on board:
WCRS AM 1450 in Greenwood, SC and WJES AM 1200 in Saluda, SC. This is great news for our program. This will set the stage for future growth for us.
Also the Voice of the Blue Hose John Avery of WLBG 860 will be airing a segment on Blue Hose football every Friday night on Stan Olenick’s high school scoreboard show. The show will be heard all across the Upstate of SC.
Wow! The world is spinning fast and I am hanging on very tight.
Excited Camp Is Over (8/24) We are now planning for week 1 vs Wofford and I think the team is excited that camp is over. We still have a lot of work to do and improve but at least our focus is now on an opponent. I hope our defense continues to improve and as an offense more play makers emerge. Our team has Monday as an off day – a day that is required by NCAA. The off day fits well on Monday due to so many late after noon labs anyway. Our guys start class on Monday and I am hoping for a great year academically. We had 34 guys on the team last year with a 3.0 GPA.
With our first game being against Wofford brings back many memories for me. We get to renew an old PC rivalry. Other than Newberry we have played Wofford more than any other school. Our first games dates back to 1914 and our last matchup was in 1994. We beat Wofford all 4 years while I was at PC (1986-1990). We actually lead the all time series in victories. Things have changed since Wofford went Division I and we have some catching up to do. To be considered as a rival we must be an equal and gaining momentum on the field is a way to gain respect. Wofford is a top 10 team is all the polls and have very good schemes. I have a lot of respect of for Coach Ayers and what he has accomplished at Wofford. Coach Ayers is a great motivator (he spoke at our banquet at Byrnes one year and even I got pumped by his words) and his team is very well coached. Their offense gets everyone’s attention but they are very good on defense and the kicking game. Their defense tackles well and plays very hard. They do a good job blitzing the QB also.
Thanks to the Presbyterian Church in Clinton for hosting us at church today. Rev. Wesberry was great.
Seven Days Out (8/22) After having some struggles the last few days I cam across this poem in some of my notes.It is amazing how it uplifted my spirits.It gave me such a lift that I shared it with the team tonight after practice. Maybe it will do the same for you today!
“This is the beginning of a new day.God has given me this day to use as I will.I can waste it or use it for good.What I do today is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving something in its place I have traded for it.I want it to be a gain, not loss - good, not evil.Success, not failure, in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it.”
We are exactly 7 days away from our opener at Wofford.I am so excited about getting season number 2 under our belts. We are experiencing some growing pains and but everything is coming together. I must remind myself to be patient but keep pushing!The team seemed to hit a wall this week with camp practice but Thursday nights practice picked things up a little.
It was great to have Dr John Griffith, the President of Presbyterian College, come out and speak to the team today.I am fortunate to work for a man who cares about our young men.It is also great to know that he supports what we are trying to build.
Go Hose!
Turning Our Attention To Wofford (8/19) We are on practice #21 on Tuesday.We had two-a-days on Monday as we begin to focus on our first opponent WoffordCollege.Even though we are starting to work on our scout teams for Wofford we must have our fundamentals as a priority. I think we are better on Defense and our offense must catch up very quickly. Our throws can not be late, our angles must be precise, and we must stay on our blocks longer because we are facing a defense that is on a mission to improve.Our defensive backs are breaking on the ball much better as last year we hardly ever had any interceptions in practice but now they knock passes down.
As a staff we are beginning to realize who will red-shirt and play as freshmen.We have some very talented young players with a very bright future. With opening game less than 2 weeks away, we have a lot of work to do.
Great Fan Day! (8/17) We had a great turnout for our annual Fan Day scrimmage. I want to thank everyone who helped promote and work the event. I think we had a bigger crowd this year which is good news. I was impressed with the presence of the Presbyterian College pep band. I think their presence increased the excitement. We will continue to build on the event for next year and add a few wrinkles to it.
I thought our defense played extremely well in the scrimmage. I hope it carries over against our opponents because after 17 straight practices the defense knows what the offense is doing. What was the most impressive thing about out defense was the fierce collisions of our secondary. I saw more collisions today by our defense than I saw all of last year! Again I am looking forward to seeing the carry over into our match ups against our opponents.
On offense we sputtered at times. We struggled in putting back to back good plays. We need to be able to handle a little adversity better and have someone make a play. Our offense is based on momentum and we lacked it today. Getting our running back SJ Worrell back on Monday should help the ground game and I am looking for more consistency overall. As an offensive coach it is not a good feeling walking off the field today...but as a head coach you must be excited about the play of your defense.
Thanks to all who attended Fan Day today. We need your support this year as we play a very demanding schedule.
Big Weekend (8/16) On Saturday we have our media/fan day scrimmage. We will have posters for the fans and we will meet everyone at 1 PM in the stadium. The players are excited about our last scrimmage of preseason camp. After the scrimmage we will give the players an off day on Sunday. On Monday we begin preparations for our first game. After the scrimmage we will determine our scout team that imitates Wofford’s schemes.
We had a tough practice on Friday morning and in the afternoon focused on Special teams. We are getting some players back off the injured list and hopefully can keep everyone healthy though the Saturday scrimmage. Our team has a lot of work to do to get better. We must be great at the things that help us compete daily: turnovers, penalties, lost yardage plays, and special teams. I would also like to see our team continue to care more about one another. We are growing closer but I want our team to be tight.
We have had some great performances over the past 2 weeks. There have been several freshmen who have been impressive to coaches. Defensive lineman Conner Hawkins (Seneca HS) has really looked well in camp. He is very aggressive and moves well. Defensive backs Justin Bethel (Blythewood HS) and Stephen Thomas (Dorman HS) are very athletic and will play a lot this year. Linebacker Lewis Coleman (Saluda HS) is going to be a solid addition to the team.
On offense, Offensive lineman Max Travis (Dutch Fork HS) and wide receiver Patrick McKoy (Fayetteville, NC) will play as freshmen.
It was great to see some graduates from last year grace the field with us this week: Sean Foley and Josh Anderson. As a coach it is a great feeling to see your former players come hang out again!
We also had a pro scout Chris Burkey with us from Hendrick Motor Sports on hand at practice. He has been hired to scout for potential pit crew members. I was amazed at hearing how they are developing their pit crew staffs from college football teams because of their discipline and strength training background. Our Offensive line coach Doug Malone coached Chris at Wingate University and he worked with Doug at Tenn Tech. I look forward to taking my nephew Blake (who races dirt track cars) up to his Nascar garage.
Hope to see you at Fan Day.
Work To Do ... But Very Proud Of Our Players (8/13) After our 2nd scrimmage on Tuesday I can say that we have a lot of work to do. On offense we need to get some turnover issues thrown out of the system quickly. With our demanding schedule we cant afford any turnovers. We are getting better on defense and with a good turnover margin we have a chance to win some of the these big games on our schedule. We also need to get our key guys back on the field on offense. Many are out right now with injuries and our timing needs work. I think we will get a few starters back in the next few days. Our athletic trainer Jason Reed has been busy lately!
As a head coach at any level it is imperative to practice tough and physical yet try to keep your players healthy. In college I am learning even more about that due to the bigger collisions and strength of our players. Overall I still believe if we can learn to practice on our feet and try to never go to the ground we can stay healthy as we approach our last full scrimmage for Saturday.
We will have our 12th practice on Wednesday morning and I can say that I am very proud of our players. They have accepted our new staff and regime full speed. The freshmen are doing a good job following the seniors. Many of th seniors are praising the work of our talented freshmen. It is much more fun coaching a team that is fun to be around and I am having fun with this group. We have some fine young men on our team. The upperclassmen are doing a great job taking the freshmen under their wings. We had a team building outing at the Bowling alley this weekend and I can see friendships developing. I also noticed that Anthony McKnight (Crestwood HS) and Coach Magdic maybe the best pool shooters on the team. Tight end Robert Bumgarner (Durham, NC) is the worst bowler and Darius Lawrence (Jacksonville, FL) is the without a doubt the worst in pool!
Pushing Through Despite Injuries (8/12) Practice is going well even though we have many on the injured reserved list. We were doing well with our injuries until after our first scrimmage, now we have a 2 page list from our trainer. The athletic training staff is doing a good job getting the guys back...many will miss the scrimmage Tuesday but should be back for Media/Fan day on Saturday. We will miss freshman Drew Swick who had an injury and will miss the season. Drew is from Collins Hill Hs in Ga and is going to be great player for us. Red- shirting him will only help him for the future. We also lost Josh Mason of Chesnee HS but will get him back soon because of a leg injury.
I am really proud of our coaches. They are working hard and I hope our efforts transform into results on Saturdays. Coach David Dunagan and Andrew Ford are doing a heck of a job getting our guys to ball on defense. We are creating turnovers and flying around on Defense. Offensively we are continuing to install plays and getting a feel for the things we can be good at. With your starting TB and leading receiver missing practice due to injury does not help things. We are getting many reps and improving. I look forward to putting a game plan together with Coach Doug Malone- he sees things like me in regards to spacing for our offense.
I look forward to going to watch Chas scrimmage tomorrow at Chester. We have our scrimmage at 3:30 so hopefully I can catch the last half. HE is excited about the season as we all are getting ready for some games!
Gaining More And More Momentum (8/9) We have now practiced for 5 days and completed our first scrimmage. On Saturday we were able to hold our first two-a-day practice and our scrimmage was held in the stadium after our morning special teams practice.The special teams practice went very well.We spent a lot of time on specifics of our special teams to prepare for our live kicks in the afternoon scrimmage. Bryson Summers our punter will be forced to do our kick off duties this year.He is doing a good job and with kickoffs at the 30 yd line your kickoff team is your first play on defense. With better KO coverage last year we will at least one more game (one in particular!)
I have not watched the video from the scrimmage yet but I saw a few things we need to improve on immediately:
Turnovers (3)- to beat the teams on our schedule we must be perfect and precise in our execution.
The good thing is that our defense forced the 3 turnovers which is one of our goals this year.
Our pass protection must improve.Too many times a defender came free to the QB and we can’t tolerate those mistakes.We are a passing offense and we must protect the QB!
The defense looked a little better after the first 2 series.We must play better defense and our guys are working hard on improving.
On Sunday we will go to church together team at Broad St Methodist church.I look forward to watching the video of the scrimmage and improving on our mistakes.
Freshmen WR Patrick McKoy (Douglas Byrd, NC) is the real deal.He will be a great player in our system.On defense strong safety Bryce Smiley (Gaffney) made a few big plays.We had a few players banged up in the scrimmage but no major injuries.As a coach you want to protect your players but you must practice physical to get better. Hopefully we can stay healthy during the rest of camp.
We are gaining more and more momentum.After a year of never getting a recruit to attend a practice last year, we have had many of them view practices this week.I hope they like what they see.
Go Blue Hose!
Developing Well After Four Days (8/7) We have completed our 4th practice and now we prepare for full pads in practice #5. I am excited about this team and how we are developing. We have many things to improve upon but it seems they have more passion at practice this year. Our players have learned that our practices are not very long but they are very intense with lots of movement and things going fast. The upperclassmen are setting the tone for how we do things and I am impressed with their leadership.
The freshmen we have brought in are very athletic. Justin Bethel, Stephen Thomas, Max Travis and Patrick Mckoy have picked up things very quickly and will be great players for the Blue Hose. Overall the group will provide a lift to our overall athleticism. A high school coach who visited practice told me that the new players looked very good.
Offensively we are turning the ball over too much. We must make better decisions and we have to work on our timing. We need more 7 on 7 work as we work on our perimeter passing. Right now, we are looking better. As Coach Bob Strock told me today, “the defense is flying around and playing better in the secondary.”
Our kicking game is getting work as well and we have set our goals high for both of our kickers.
Andrew Jenkins led team Bible study on Thursday night. I am so glad the team has bought into the spiritual wheel of the program.
After having a new coaching staff this year, I am enjoying working with his group. We have some cohesiveness that the players can sense. The toughest thing as a head coach at any level is getting a staff together that really likes working together. On Friday night after practice we will review our TEAMBuilding outline and go late night Bowling. I am sure the team will enjoy the time together!
Go Hose!
Two Good Days Of Practice (8/5) I am very proud of our players after having 2 good days of practice.I am also proud of the 18 upperclassmen (who we challenged after they failed their conditioning test) because they passed the conditioning repeat test on Monday morning.We have only 7 players who have not passed their conditioning test.
Our coaches and players have a lot of excitement about what we are doing.Coach Eric Cash has done a good job in our speed and conditioning program- our guys are looking better.I hope we keep up the intensity as we put on shoulder pads for Wednesday’s practice.
After putting in our PAT and punt teams you can tell our kickers Bryson Summers and Cam Miller have worked hard this summer.I am also excited about the looks of our secondary as we look much better in the defensive backfield.
A few player notes:
Freshmen wide receiver Patrick McKoy (Fayetteville, NC) looks very good and has great hands
Senior cornerback Antoine Carter (Berkmar, Ga) looks very good in coverage
Senior defensive end Adam Mckinney (August, GA) is moving very good and will be counted on heavily.
First Day Impressions (8/4) First day of practice in preseason camp is behind us. Two-thirds of our team passed our conditioning test today- a tremendous increase from last year's percentage. Having most of our team at summer school was a benefit. I would have liked to see all of our upperclassmen pass the eighteen 110 test.
Overall I was impressed with practice for it being the first day. The upperclassmen can go through our 2 hour practice at a better pace (especially the first part of SAQ drills). Our freshmen are overall very athletic. I will be more specific after a few more practices.
Major General James Allen (PC class of '55) spoke to the team and shared his views on leadership. He is a great ambassador for PC.
More progress (7/30) I received very positive news on Monday from our AD. The ADs of the Big South Conference have voted to allow our football players to earn All-Conference awards this year! I know the players are excited about this important step for our program and I appreciate the Big South Conference supporting our student-athletes.
On Tuesday we are going to the SC Coaches convention in Charleston. I look forward to seeing some old friends in one of my favorite cities at the Marina Variety Store in Charleston. The seafood restaurant is owned PC graduate Mike Altine.
We have been working very diligently preparing for our player’s arrival for camp. The players come in on Sunday August 3rd at 1pm. I hope all the parents of our freshmen players show up for the meeting at 3:30. I love this time of year as the horses are at the gates- football season begins!
Into The Big South Scene (7/25) We just finished our media day events in Charlotte. Tim Webb our quarterback represented us well in his interviews. With it being our second time around, I was more relaxed in the group setting. I can see that PC is being more integrated into the Big South scene. The Big South has only been in existence for 7 years as a football conference but is growing at a rapid pace. In 2010 we will be an automatic qualifier for the playoffs which means the league champ will get an automatic bid to the playoffs. PC will be eligible in 2011 for post-season play.
The PC football family will miss Coach Reuben Wright. Coach Wright has decided to get out of coaching this year. He is truly one of the best coaches I have ever had and I will miss him. He has a tremendous gift as a coach and I hope he will return to the profession. With the timing of the loss of Coach Wright we will shuffle the staff assignments and permanently replace him in January. BJ Connolly our operations and video coordinator moves into the defensive line position. Coach Brandon Sarver will head up video now and coach TEs. More responsibility will be added to Coach David Dunagan as he will assist with Defensive line and all defensive personnel.
We have added another position to our speed and strength training program as Ranzino Valentine will be joining us. We will now have 2 coaches in the strength program with a goal of having 3 very soon. We ask for more resources and stretching of our tent strings and it is happening.
Paint It Blue (7/23) On Thursday the Big South Media events begin. The Big South puts on a big golf tourney where several of our coaches will participate. I tried golf before but do not like it so I will skip the golf outing. The Big South will have a celebration dinner on Thursday night that my wife and I will attend. It is good the the Big South includes in the activities as we transition into full time membership. Being a transition member has it growing pains and I look forward to the Blue Hose being an equal in everything. Our players have been so resilient in this process and I think they are laying a great foundation to our success in the Big South. Last year we were competitive in our Big South match ups. We were fortunate to beat VMI and Coastal and was leading Charleston Southern with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game. Our team did a great job and I am proud of what we accomplished last year.
As the season approaches we are excited about the 2008 “Paint it Blue” concept. As we force our first turnover on defense this year I can hear John Avery the voice of the Blue Hose pronounce “Paint it Blue”...first down Blue Hose. After a Terrance Butler touchdown reception John will continue with Paint it Blue!
Excitement is building for the season. Our Athletic Director Dr. Bee Carlton tells me that our season ticket sales are going better than ever. With our six home games we hope to fill the stands with some rowdy excited fans.
Our schedule will be very tough this year. After seeing the Southern Conference predictions for the year, we play the top 3 teams in the SoCon! Hopefully we can knock off some of those teams we are not suppose to beat. Upsetting good teams establishes landmarks for your program. The platform is being built now.
Everyone's Help In Making This Great (7/21) Homecoming will be a great treat for our team this year as one of the most prized Blue Hose of all time will speak to the team. Dr. Dan Eckstein (Presbyterian College ’69) has confirmed with me that he will give his ’68 to the team on Oct 4. He has requested Coach Cally Gault’s presence and several teammates for the occasion. Dan is the author of numerous books including the 41st Packer a book that documents his days as a Green Bay Packer. Dan is a legend at PC...prior to becoming a psychologist he was a college football All-American with the Blue Hose; he played two years of professional football with the Green Bay Packers, the Hamilton (Ontario) Tiger-Cats, and the Miami Dolphins. Check out Dan's website.
As we build our program, I am so excited to get the former PC greats back on campus. We need everyone’s help as we make this strain into Division 1 athletics. If we pool all of our resources together we will be a success on and off the field for our players.
The 90 man roster is set and players should be reminded of the August 3rd reporting date. Freshmen should report to MSY at 1 PM and upperclassmen should begin coming in at 2 PM. We will have a meeting of all of our parents at 3:30 pm in MSY center. Our staff is working on the final preps for our pre-season camp. We are excited about practice getting started.
Media day for the Big South Conference is Friday. Brian Hand our Sports Information Director has worked hard on our new media guide. I look forward to him posting it on the website www.gobluehose.com
Look for the media guide posting very soon.
Congratulations to Terrance Butler, Adam Mckinney and Bryson Summers on making a pre-season all-conference team chosen by Phil Steele’s magazine. It is great to see our players get much deserved recognition. For more good reading about the Blue Hose football program, check out the article on running backs coach Jomar Wright at GoUpstate.com
I had a good weekend after taking my step son Chas up to Vanderbilt for a one day camp. It was his second camp to showcase his talents-he went to Wake Forest last weekend. It is very interesting to see recruiting on the other side as a parent. His mom and I are excited about what the future holds and pray that everything falls into place. As insurance one of the reasons I took the job at PC is that all the kids get tuition exchange.
Summer Camp Sessions Completed (7/19) We have completed our summer camp sessions. The second session of 7 on 7 team camp brought 16 more teams to the campus. We were able to see a lot of good teams and prospects during our camp. The following teams participated in camp:
Alpharetta, Ga
Buford, Ga
Southside Christian
Eastside
Wren
Greenville
Southside
White Knoll
North Oconee, Ga
Ben Lippen
Eagles Landing, Ga
Indian Land
TL Hanna
Wesleyan, Ga
Colleton County
Clinton
Thanks to everyone who made who camps a success. I am hoping we can get even more teams committed next year. We will try our best to accommodate all requests.
My time has been focused on camp, final preps on our media guide, and pre-season camp for us. Our staff will take a break this week as we get back to work next Sunday in our “hideaway” to prepare for the season. The freshmen will report on August 3 at 1 PM and the upperclassmen need to be at PC at 2:00 PM.
Thanks to Damon Tomeo who provided us with a filemaker pro system to organize our recruiting. Ever since we started at PC with recruiting we have not had a structured system for a recruiting data base. He has made our lifes (and jobs) a lot more organized which will allow us to be more efficient with your resources. Our video logs and call reports will be centralized and all of our coaches will be able to view information on everyone’s recruits. We basically improved our recruiting efforts 100% with the new system.
A Good Camp (7/15) We completed our first session of 7 on 7 team camp on Tuesday and overall I think we had a very good camp. The camp brought many student athletes and coaches to our campus. All the coaches mentioned to me that they are excited about coming back next year. I hope we can grow the camp to become the best available to coaches in our region of the country.
The following teams came to our camp:
Daniel
Butler, NC
Weddington, NC
Alexander Central, NC
White County, Ga
Hart County, Ga
Byrnes
Chapin
Greenbrier, Ga
Bishop England
Laurens
Gaffney
West Oak
Collins Hill, Ga
Union
On Wednesday we begin our second session of camp and we have 17 more teams coming to work on our campus. This years camp total will be 32 teams and for our second year we are doing ok. Our campus is very well suited for camps and I am looking forward to another great session.
As we approach the season I am excited about our report day of Aug 3rd. I will be sending out some invites to camp and I dread not being able to invite all of our players. We will get the letters out to the players this week.
Molding Our Footprint In Many Ways (7/10) I was able to speak to the FCA football camp at USC Upstate on Wednesday. I really appreciate Coach Bill Owens inviting me to speak to the group because FCA means so much to me and my family. The summer FCA camps for coaches and athletes are a tremendous blessing. It was great seeing many old coaching friends. It was great seeing coach Reggie Shaw who is now head coach at Ben Lippen Academy and he seems very content.
After FCA camp the staff and I spent the rest of day focusing on our 7 on 7 camp. We have over 40 teams coming to our 7 on 7 team camp that begins on Sunday. PC has always done a great job with camps and it is a good resource in recruiting and marketing our name. We have some great teams coming out to camp and hope to continue to increase the quality and structure of our deal for high school coaches.
In regards to recruiting we will continue to mold our footprint in the Southeast. Our focus will remain on South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. As our budget and resources increase we are excited about branching out. We will put 2 coaches in Florida this fall and one in Birmingham, Alabama. We will also try to establish a presence in Virginia and Tennessee as we build. Our main focus right now is to develop areas that we think we can gain visits and interest. I look forward to increasing our territory.
Summer School 2 has started very well. 36 of our players are on campus right now striving improve in all areas. I look forward to Aug 3rd – the first day or 90 man roster reports to campus. I wish we could bring in all of our players. We have many more than 90 players but only 90 can report to camp...that seems bizarre.
If a guy wants to play I want to give him every opportunity to make it happen. The other players can start when classes begin on Aug 25. Several will get discouraged and I wish we could avoid the issue.
Anyway I can’t control the rules so I must see the positives. I am looking forward to seeing our team on Aug 3rd!!
See The Positives In Your Situation (7/8) I will start the blog with a great quote from the book I am reading One Month to Live: “If you have to move one inch from where you are right now to be happy, then you will never be happy. Because wherever you go, there your discontented self will be!”
See the positives in your situation and you can get others to follow to you. I try to always see the best in things and hope to give a little more to brighten the way for someone else.
We begin Summer School 2 now and for the next four weeks we have over 35 players on campus working on their academics and working out together as a team. We thought we would only have 20 players this session but over 35 showed up. I am very impressed with the number because most are paying for the session on their own dollar. We will build a fine program with that type of commitment and I look forward to the day so we can get the entire team on campus for summer sessions. In all this year we have had over 80 of our guys on campus this summer so we are making progress. Thanks to our administration for understanding the need and assisting us in making it happen.
We are gaining momentum in many areas and working through the summer is one of the goals that we can control. As a new division 1 program we must focus on the areas that we can control and only be concerned about us: workouts, recruiting, our methods, our vision. Coach Cash our strength coach is working on hiring an asst strength coach. Less than a year and a half ago we did not have a full time strength coach and hopefully before we take the field in August we will have two! Because I like being positive and being a visionary, I enjoy seeing things happen.
Several have asked me about the stadium vision I mentioned earlier in a blog. Our stadium is awesome and we need to showcase it more. Hopefully in the new future we can discuss how we can get our football operations to the stadium. Yes it will take some time but that is why we are here...to build a championship program. A few offices, a team room, lockers, and a dream we can make it happen. We only need one flashlight that is burning bright...it will shine the way for the others.
Congrats to our baseball coach Elton Pollock for being named PC’s advocate of the year. Coach Pollock is one of the finest men I know and a great ambassador for the Blue Hose! Good luck to PC assistant baseball coach Charles Assey who took a job at Florida State. Coach Assey who is a PC grad worked with Coach Cash in the weight room and we will miss him.
Live With No Regrets! (7/2) My heart and prayers go out to Coach Freddy Brown and the Spartanburg Viking football team. They lost a player in a drowning incident on Lake Bowen on Monday. The incident hits close to us because Coach Brown had 30 of his players at our camp last week. The receiver coach at Spartanburg, JP Connolly, is the brother of our Director of football operations BJ Connolly. Also the defensive backs coach at Spartanburg Mark Razzano is a former PC teammate of mine and he also worked with me at Byrnes. I pray that God will strengthen the team and the family through their pain.
Only 3 short months ago we experienced tragedy in our football family. It was one of the toughest things I have ever been through. God gave us power to overcome and at least 8 decisions of faith happened with our team. Events like this remind us of how we should live with no regrets!
The book I am reading reminds me to open our hearts to those we love to encourage communication. Before words ever flow we should expose our heart...a powerful leadership concept.
It was great seeing former PC great Tony Robertson on campus Tuesday. He was one heck of a linebacker from Rock Hill. He reminded me that we need more players from his hometown and I agreed.
I enjoyed my lunch on Tuesday at the Beacon with Rutt Galloway and Coach Bill Carr. Coach Carr coached Rutt at Easley HS and Rutt went on to have a great career at PC. I have always respected Coach Carr because he was trial blazer. He was one of the coaches that was passing the ball and running trick plays to have fun with his teams back in the '60s.
Second Session of summer school begins on Monday. I hope we can get 25 players here. Many of our defensive players will be here for 2nd session.
Keeping The Blog Rolling (6/30) After taking a break on the blog I will try to keep it rolling out as we approach our 2nd season. I appreciate those who are following us on this journey and sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to our success. I am reminded daily that we took on this is task at PC to invest in others. We are making progress in areas on and off the field.
We have 58 players working out and attending summer school first session and they have been working hard. The players take exams this week and we start summer school 2 next week.As a football staff we can’t be involved with the team workouts only the strength staff can supervise workouts. It is much better to have the team around us during the summer. I look forward to the day we can get the entire team on campus for the summer like most of our competition.
Two of our camps are behind us now. Our youth camp and QB-Receiver camp was a tremendous success. We basically doubled our participation in the two camps compared to last year. Thanks to our complete staff for all of their hard work as we build our program. Our staff is already planning our camps for next year as Coach Matt Cain was telling me Saturday how we need to make a camp poster brochure. We are definitely being increased as we had campers from 9 states on our campus during our camps: Montana, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina. I am thankful we are building a reputation for teaching at our camps and word is spreading that we host a tremendous camp. Hosting the camp competition in Bailey stadium reminded me and our staff that we have to get a plan to move our football operations to our stadium. Many coaches and parents voiced many compliments about the look of the turf and the beauty of the stadium. Our stadium is only used at the max only 6 times a year. If we can get offices, lockers in our locker room, and a team room out at Yonce field house we will be able to market our product even better. I can see it all happening... we are only a few million dollars short!
We have one more camp this summer: our 7 on 7 camp with 2 sessions on July 13-15 and July 16-18. We have over 40 teams lined up to come right now and Coach Reuben Wright has done a great job with the camp schedule.
Photo Credit: PC Sports Information
