Photo by: Jeremy Enlow
Wildcats ready to get started
8/11/2011 1:15:00 AM | Football
ABILENE – More than 100 players reported for workouts Wednesday as ACU head football coach Chris Thomsen and his staff welcomed those players for the start of practice for the 2011 season.
Thomsen – beginning his seventh season in 2011 – saw 112 players on Wednesday as the Wildcats begin preparations to defend their Lone Star Conference championship. The players will be in meetings most of the day Thursday before a conditioning run late in the afternoon and then a 7:30 p.m. practice at the Wally Bullington Practice Facility.
The Wildcats – ranked No. 3 in the nation in two pre-season polls and No. 6 in another – have been picked to win the Lone Star Conference championship in 2011, according to the league's pre-season poll, which was released at the end of July. ACU won last year's crown with the program's first 11-0 regular-season record, finishing 11-1 after a second-round playoff loss to Central Missouri.
ACU lost 22 seniors off last year's team, but has another solid group of seniors ready to step in and take the place of those leaders from last year's team. Among them is senior defensive end Aston Whiteside, who has been selected as the LSC Pre-Season Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.
Whiteside – who was a first team all-LSC South Division and first team all-Super Region IV selection in 2010 – said he has been waiting for Thursday almost since the day the 2010 season ended.
"I'm so excited for this week and this season," Whiteside said. "I was up late a few nights ago talking to my roommate about this team and this season and it just got me very excited about what we can do this year. We lost a lot of great players and leaders, and building on what those guys left is what we have to do this year."
Because of the extreme heat, the Wildcats' practice schedule is a bit different from years past. ACU won't hit the field until Thursday night, but will practice at 8:30 a.m. both Friday and Saturday before a 4 p.m. practice Sunday. The Wildcats will be back on the field at 8:30 a.m. both Monday (Aug. 15) and Tuesday (Aug. 16). The Wildcats have tentatively scheduled a scrimmage for Wednesday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m. at Shotwell Stadium.
OTHER NOTES
Senior running back Reggie Brown was back in the fold after last summer's knee injury forced him to miss the entire 2010 season. Brown walked without a limp and looked as though he had grown a couple of inches and packed on about 10 pounds of muscle since the 2009 season ended. ... The Wildcats will have the best three-headed running back in the league in seniors Brown and Daryl Richardson and sophomore Charcandrick West. ... Cornerback Alex Harbison, who missed each of the last two seasons because of an injury, is back with the Wildcats and should be in the cornerback rotation. Harbison was a second team all-LSC South selection in 2008. ... The offensive line got a big addition, literally, with the arrival of transfer Jerod Harrell, a senior with one year of eligibility remaining. ... Harrell – who played at Lambuth Univeristy in Tennessee before the school dropped the football program after last season – checks in at 6-6, 335 pounds. ... Transfer safety Mike Wallace (College of San Mateo) figures into the safety rotation with Richard Havins and Darien Williams, freeing up the Wildcats to move the physical L.B. Suggs to cornerback. ... The receiving corps picked up two more sets of hands in transfer Ronald Gaudin (20 catches for 266 yards and three scores in 2010 at El Camino Community College) and transfer Andrew Richards (Kansas State). ... Richards will be 25 in early December and hasn't really played since his senior season at Keller High School in 2004. He red-shirted in 2005 at Kansas State and then didn't play in 2006. ... Linebacker Jesse Harper transferred to ACU from Scottsdale Community College in Arizona where he was a second team all-conference and second team all-region performer and the teammate of current ACU wide receiver Jamaine Sherman, who transferred to ACU last January. ... Punter Josh Fralick transferred to ACU from Wyoming where he walked on last year. ... As a senior in 2009 at Chatfield Senior High School in Littleton, Colo., Fralick averaged 41.8 yards per punt and 31 of his 50 kickoffs went for touchbacks. ... The linebacking corps got another boost with the addition of University of Maryland transfer Derek Drummond, a 6-4, 245-pounder from Pomfret, Md. ... In three seasons with the Terrapins, Drummond played in 24 games and will play outside linebacker for the Wildcats. ... A few Wildcat veterans will wear new numbers in 2011: defensive back Nate Bailey goes from 32 to 3; wide receiver Taylor Gabriel goes from 14 to 4; Suggs goes from 43 to 7; and linebacker Thor Woerner goes from 45 to 9. ... Some notable ACU numbers going to newcomers include Gaudin wearing the No. 8 sported the last three years by Miami Dolphins' draft pick Edmond Gates; Sherman wearing the No. 5 that was worn the previous two seasons by all-conference wide receiver Kendrick Johnson; and defensive lineman Rob Boyd (transfer from Sam Houston State) wearing the No. 33 worn the previous four seasons by Fred Thompson. ... Some notable freshmen who could see playing time and their numbers are highly touted tight end Jonathan Parker wearing No. 19, defensive tackle George Woods from Houston in No. 75, and defensive back Vicente Cantu-Harkless (younger brother of wide receiver Darrell Cantu-Harkless) wearing No. 18. ... Former Wildcats Eric Edwards, Bryson Lewis, and Ryan Keeling are returning to the team in 2011 as volunteer / student assistant coaches. ... Thomsen also announced that linebackers coach Joseph Walker and defensive assistant coach Jack Kiser had left the staff over the summer.
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