Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Football enjoys physical third practice of fall camp
08/09/2011 | 12:00:00 | Football
Aug. 9, 2011
By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com
C. Fuller -- the Post Man hopes to deliver for Saluki Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Putting shoulder pads on brought out a new intensity level to practice for the Southern Illinois football team, which completed a fiery morning session Tuesday on the third day of fall camp.
Head coach Dale Lennon liked the energy level that he saw for the majority of practice and was pleased with how the team worked through it.
"The intensity was good," Lennon said. "Guys squared up against each other and no one was giving in, which is what you want to see. There was a competitive nature emphasized today."
The players are itching to go full-go and sporting shoulder pads for the first time this fall brought out a new level of physicality.
Tuesday's practice saw a good balance between the offense and defense making plays.
"The give and take has been right where we want it to be," Lennon said. "Both sides of the ball had a lot of success. We're still installing a lot of the offensive and defensive packages, so the guys are still learning, but we are liking what we're seeing from both sides of the ball."
After opening practice with individual drills, the Saluki offensive and defensive fronts came together to work on the run game while the quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs did one-on-one passing drills.
The offensive and defensive lines along with the linebackers had heated battles going throughout the entire practice.
After a physical inside run drill, they switched over to pass blocking and rushing the passer.
Outside linebacker Kevin Reed, a junior college transfer from Laney College, has shown some explosiveness coming off the edge. Freshman Adam Vanderpool gained praise from his teammates and coaches when given his shot at pass blocking.
A good battle went on between preseason All-American Bryan Boemer at center and junior nose tackle Kayon Swanson at nose guard, which brought excitement to both the offense and defense.
Running backs Steve Strother, Shariff Harris and Jewel Hampton all stood out at different points of the practice.
Hampton plowed over a middle linebacker in the inside drill and he's showing the ability to hit the holes quickly. Strother showed off his spped and ability to hit the edge quickly. On one inside dive over the left guard, Strother cut back to his right, found a gap to get to the edge and out-ran the defense down the field.
Harris displayed good vision at Tuesday's practice, being patient and hitting the holes. All three of the running backs have looked sharp this fall.
The Salukis ended the practice with a team blitz session, where the coaches threw more of a complete package at both the offense and defense.
Redshirt freshman Dante Lewis, at 5-11, provided the highlight of the blitz session when he came down with a jump ball against 6-3 wide receiver David Lewis for an interception on a ball that was a bit underthrown.
SIU has one more day Wednesday in just shoulder pads before going full-go Thursday, which should make for an extremely physical practice if Tuesday was any indication.
