What’s that smell?

That smell…..it’s spring football at Linfield College and I had that chance to hang out on Wednesday evening at the ‘Catdome and take in the spring drills and take in the action.

Practice started right at 7:15 and by a quick glance I spotted 65-70 players taking part in spring practice. So if you add the 18 other players that are running track or playing baseball and you have 80-85 returning ‘Cats coming back next fall. (Add the incoming freshmen and you have another huge team in terms of bodies).

Before practice I had a chance to check out Coach Ron August’s new 2007 Corvette. The picture below is pretty much the style/color of his Z06. It’s really an amazing car and we all know that your kicking coach should drive in style.

The practice was broken down as most typical Linfield practices. Individual position work to start off at the beginning of practice, then DB/LBs hook up with the offfensive skill guys for Skelly, after that, defense/offense head off on their own to work on their scheme, and then finish with some team.

Besides the X and O's of practice the one thing I noticed was the great communication between the players; you could see and hear players coaching up each other and really getting into the who, what, and why of the defense/offense. The communication was beyond the vets saying “you need to be at this spot” at a certain time but more of “the reason why you need need to be at this spot is…” That says a lot about how much the returning vets understand the philosophy of the defense/offense. It’s a little thing but it speaks volumes.

The biggest questions are going at the interior positions. The question is not the lack of ability but more of the experience factor. The ‘Cats did lose our Mikes at the defensive tackle positions and they had 8 years of starting experience/8 years of All-NWC honors between the two of them. We do have some very capable kids coming up in those DT spots but the up and comers have some shoes to fill.

The offensive line has to replace both starting guards and tackles which will be no easy feat. The good news is that center John Kemper is back and that should be huge in terms of leadership and you have a true vet making all of your adjustments at the LOS.

Tight End Joe Seifert is back for the ‘Cats after missing of 2006 with an injury and that should give the running attack a boost with the option of having Seifert and returning starting TE Brett Smedley on the field at the same time. I don’t know if we’ll ever have a TE blocking combination like Luke Buchheit and Marcus Ward (2001-2002) ever again but I think Linfield fans will enjoy watching Seifert and Smedley in 2007.

I’ll be back at the ‘Catdome next Wednesday to take in some more action.