Nick Lamaison talked about his shoulder before practice, and said that he had worked very hard himself, and with the training staff, and that it felt pretty good. The real test, he said, would be when he got out on the field and started throwing.
He said that he wasn’t really worried about contact, and, of course, he wouldn’t have any contact during practice.
“It’s all about the throwing. I’ll be able to take the hit, or the pain, or whatever. I’m just worried about the throwing. I’m not worried about it, but that’s what I need to test, is the throwing. That’s what I’ll focus on,” he said.
He has been throwing 25 yard passes all week, but there is a huge difference between throwing 25 yard passes, and throwing passes under pressure. There’s things like zip, touch, and timing. he was quick to point out that it was more a matter of putting zip on the ball than throwing it long. The pressure on the shoulder comes from the strain put on the joint when putting that zip on the ball.
He said that he felt like he would be ready for the Thursday night game against the Houston Cougars.
After practice, he once again talked about the Houston game.
“Definitely it’s a big game, because it’s a conference game. I’m going to work in the training room, make sure that my arm is as good as it can be. It’s a big game, and we all care about it, a lot.”
About his shoulder, he had this to say, “I felt good. I was thinking I might have had some trouble with some deeper passes, but I didn’t. As soon as I got into it, as my body started getting warm, more and more, I felt a lot better, and better, as practice went along.”
Coach Price had told him to go full go, and not to hold anything back, and get ready to play.
“I’ll be a little bit sore, tomorrow, or tonight, probably, but I’ll get that fixed up. One thing I’m glad to be back out here is since I haven’t been throwing for awhile, I’ve got to tighten up the timing a little with some of my guys, on my own level, kind of working around my shoulder, and things like that. But, as far as the first day, on Monday, I think it went really well.”
So, after the first day back he felt good, and he looked pretty good throwing the ball. Tomorrow, after his shoulder has a chance to see how it feels to have been put back under pressure, will probably be an even better test. But, he is a warrior, and you can bet that if his shoulder doesn’t fall off over night, he will be out there pushing as hard as he can to make sure that when the first snap comes from the Miners’ center, it will be to him.