ACU back to work Tuesday
3/11/2009 5:00:00 AM | Football
ABILENE ? The ACU football team will return to spring drills Tuesday after taking a week off for the Spring Break holiday.
The Wildcats will be in full pads Tuesday and Wednesday (March 17-18) at 4 p.m. each day at the Bullington Practice Field. ACU has just six more full-pad practices before the annual Purple-White Spring Game, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 4, at 10 a.m. at Shotwell Stadium.
ACU only had one full-pad practice in the first week of spring training (March 2-5), but Wildcat head coach Chris Thomsen liked what he saw in those four days.
“It's tough to gauge with only one full-pad practice, but I thought we had a good first week,” Thomsen said. “We have lot of guys returning who already understand what we do from a scheme standpoint on both sides of the ball.”
ACU will enter the 2009 season as the defending Lone Star Conference champion for the first time since 1978. The Wildcats last season compiled a 10-0 regular-season record on their way to an 11-1 record and appearance in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals. The perfect regular season was the program's first since 1950, and the LSC title was its first since 1977 and first outright crown since 1973.
The Wildcats return six players who started on offense and eight who started on defense, but gone are the big names of Billy Malone, Bernard Scott and Johnny Knox, the trio of offensive skill players who helped ACU light up scoreboards all over the LSC.
Malone finished his career as the Lone Star Conference's all-time leader in almost every passing and total offense category, while Scott set the ACU career rushing record in only two seasons and won the 2008 Harlon Hill Award as the top player in NCAA Division II football. Knox ? who could be drafted as high as the third round of next month's NFL Draft ? set the ACU career record for touchdown receptions with 30 in only two seasons.
Perhaps the most impressive player on the field for the Wildcats in the first week was wide receiver Edmund Gates, who will be a junior in 2009. Gates caught 31 passes for 716 yards and eight touchdowns and carried the ball another 11 times for 94 yards and one touchdown in 2008 and should be the primary focus of the Wildcats' passing game next season.
“Edmund looked really good and really confident,” said Thomsen, who is 33-13 in his four seasons as the head coach. “The next progression for him is to be our ?go-to guy' in the passing game like Johnny was the last two seasons. I think he's ready to take on that responsibility.”
Thomsen is also excited to see the progress of receivers Chance McCoy and Doug Pierce. The Wildcats will also get junior college transfer Kendrick Johnson from Kilgore College. Johnson ? a 5-9, 180-pound speedster ? will arrive on campus this summer and should make an immediate impact on the Wildcats in 2009.
At the quarterback position, the Wildcats are missing sophomore-to-be Zach Stewart, who stepped in for Malone when he was injured last season and led ACU to wins over Tarleton State and Texas A&M-Kingsville. In the win over Kingsville, Stewart threw for 350 yards and three touchdowns and put in an early claim to the starting job in 2009.
However, shortly after the season ended he had surgery on his right (throwing) shoulder that will keep on the sidelines throughout spring drills. The timeline is for Stewart to start throwing in the next three weeks, and he should be able to throw at full strength by June 1.
In his absence, junior-to-be Clark Harrell and Mitchell Gale ? who will be a redshirt freshman in 2009 ? have taken the snaps with Harrell taking most of the first-team snaps last week.
“Both of them did some good things in the first week,” Thomsen said of his two quarterbacks. “They both made some good throws, but they're both still young in our system and they've still got work to do.”
At the running back position, fifth-year senior Patrick Washington (94 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries in 2008) had a solid first week as did transfer Kyle Fox, the former Angelo State standout. As a freshman at ASU in 2005, Fox ran for 1,417 yards and 15 touchdowns on 160 carries and caught another 19 passes for 351 yards and three touchdowns on his way to earning LSC South Division Freshman of the Year and first team all-LSC South Division honors.
Fox led the Rams to a 9-3 season and a berth in the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2005, but hasn't played since that freshman season. If healthy and ready to play, he could be a major contributor to the Wildcats' offense in 2009.
The Wildcats' running back situation will also be helped by the arrival of junior college transfer Reggie Brown of Blinn College, who will arrive this summer. Brown led the Southwest Junior College Football Conference in rushing in 2008 (1,278 yards and 10 touchdowns), averaging more than 7.5 yards per carry.
The Wildcats' offensive line ? which returns starters in tackles Tony Washington (LSC South Offensive Lineman of the Year) and Trevis Turner and guard Royland Tubbs and key backups in Neal Tivis, Adam Myer and Matt Webber ? will have to be the strength of the offensive unit until ACU's skill-position players find their comfort zone.
Defensively, the Wildcats return most of their key players, including defensive end Aston Whiteside, who last year was voted LSC South Division Freshman of the Year and co-Defensive Lineman of the Year. Also returning to the Wildcats are end Nick Jones, linebackers Fred Thompson, Bryson Lewis and Eric Edwards and defensive backs Tony Harp, Alex Harbison, Craig Harris and Drew Cuffee.
“We've got a lot of guys on that side of the ball who grew up last year, and we're expecting big things from them in 2009,” Thomsen said. “We've got a couple of guys coming in, but we don't really have a lot of holes to fill on the defensive side of the ball. I feel really comfortable with where we are in our progress defensively, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of our younger guys grow and mature.”
The Wildcats will begin the 2009 season against the same team that ended their 2008 season when they host four-time NCAA Division II national runner-up Northwest Missouri State at Shotwell Stadium. The Wildcats and Bearcats ? who split a pair of games in 2008 ? will open the 2009 season at Shotwell Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 27, at 6 p.m.
ACU went to Maryville, Mo., last season and rallied from a 21-7 deficit to take a 44-27 road win on its way to the LSC championship. The Bearcats, however, returned the favor in Abilene on Nov. 29 with a 45-36 win over the Wildcats in the NCAA quarterfinals.
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