The Kyyote's Howl

I braved the wind and the cold to take a look at the team, today. There was a young man that I was sure I recognized, but couldn’t place, working with the receivers. Johnnie Lee looked a little older, and a little more mature than he did when he played for the Miners, Talking with him, I kind of had the same impression. He and defensive lineman Humberto Padilla are back in the classroom at UTEP, and both are out on the field working with the players. I have to believe that when JLH talks, receivers listen. He has street cred, as they say. What I liked most was hearing him say that he tells the kids to listen to the coaches and get their education.

The Miners’ new offensive line coach, UTEP’s All-American ex-tight end, Brian Natkin has hit the ground running. Speaking of the offensive line, and I will get more information on the line soon, Eloy Atkinson had surgery, but will be fine and ready to go for the upcoming season. At the center position, Kyle Brown worked at that position last year, but the real news here is that El Paso’s Horizon High School freshman, Paulo Melendez (6-2/310) has been working at the spot.

The defensive line has seen some movement, also. Watkins and Miller are penciled in at the ends, with Adam Ayala moving to the interior line spot. James Davidson, who saw time at the defensive end spot last season and showed signs that he was taking to the position and getting people’s attention is back on the field, sans contact, after having surgery to repair a broken hand. Once he is back to 100%, look for him to push for the starting spot.

Coach Price is very impressed with Jeffrey and Bell, his probable starting running backs. Having had the three-headed monster in Banyard, Frazier, and Myers last year it was hard for these two to get their chances. When they did, it was apparent that they were both very talented. They will have the spotlight, soon.

I noticed that the quarterback from Lon Morris College, John Coomer, wasn’t there. I was told that he has switched positions to receiver.

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.

Carson Meger is as cool as an air conditioned igloo, both on the field and off. On the field, he makes his reads, has an instinctive feel for when to move to avoid a rush and when to tuck it away and get what he can on the ground.

Off the field, he has the ability to say all of the right things-all of those things that savvy players have learned to say. But, he also talks naturally about football in the same, knowledgeable way. He says the right things without them coming out sounding canned or rehearsed. They sound natural. Just like him-natural.

In his first interview since getting his first real start (he started in the SMU game but was pulled after the first play, a punishment for the starting quarterback, Nick Lamaison, who had violated a team rule) Meger talked calmly about the experience, like it was something he had done a thousand times. As surprised and excited as everyone else was about his performance, many seemed to think Meger would be, and wanted to hear about it. But, he wasn’t surprised or excited about his performance. It was what he had always known. He smiled, he enjoyed others surprise and excitement, instead of them enjoying his. There was no indignation about their surprise. There was no desire to point out to them that they were surprised, but not him. There was no hint of triumph in proving doubters wrong. He’s way too cool for that kind of thing. He smiled, and enjoyed himself, but not at their expense or in a way they expected.

Carson Meger has a rare quality in an athlete at this level. He is one of the most competitive persons you will ever see, but he competes to win games. The game may be who can kick a punt that stops closest to the endzone without going in from the 50 yard line, or a football game. But, as much as he wants to win, and quite often does, he never loses the joy of playing a game. Win or lose. It’s just a game. Let’s play another.

When he was asked how it felt to finally get his first real start at the Division 1 level, the first sentence out of his mouth said it perfectly.

“It was fun,” he said. Then he went on, “Everybody comes to play, not to sit on the sidelines, so after waiting for my first two seasons and three games of this season, it was fun to finally strap up and get out and be in the huddle with the guys, and be out there with the team and run a whole game. So, it was a lot of fun. I had a whole lot of fun doing it.”

When asked if he expected to be the starter, this week, he handled it perfectly.

“You’ve got to prepare like you’re going to play, every week. I’m hoping I do, and if I do, I’ve got to make the most of it. If I don’t I’ve got to do my part from the sideline and be ready to play, if that comes to happen. But, we’ll just kind of have to see, and take it day by day, and see what happens.”

The reporter gave it another shot, from a slightly different angle, asking if expecting Nick Lamaison to start was maybe a misconception. Meger was too smart.

“I’m not sure. Like I said, we’ll have to take it day by day and see what happens,” he said, showing a little bit of a smile,”see how practice goes, and see where we go from today, and take today and roll tomorrow. Tomorrow might be a different answer, or it might be the same. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Asked if he felt like he had at least secured the number two spot, he again showed the same nimbleness that he uses to avoid on rushing defenders.

“With this team, and with football, as far as the quarterback situation, there’s a starter, and there’s everybody else. That’s just kind of how it is. Everybody’s got their own roll, and everybody’s got to take in that role, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got a role toplay on this team, and I’m going to play it, whether it be number two, or number three, what ever the role is, I’ve got to take that in and play that every week, and just be prepared to play, no matter what the situation is.”

Another big positive from the South Florida game was the play of the offensive line. After struggling to create the push needed to get the running game going in the Miners’ first three games, against the powerful, ranked Bulls, it seemed to be able to push the South Florida defensive line around with an unexpected ease. I asked Meger to talk about his offensive line coming off of their performance against a tough Bulls team.

“They did good. That was a fast, pretty creative, defensive line. The defense as a whole, and especially the linebackers had a lot of speed. The O-line did a heck of a job protecting me all night. They did a good job.”

Any nerves going into the game, I asked.

“No, not really. I mean, you might think there are, but like I said, everbody out here has played before. Nobody comes into Division 1 just never playing the game. Everybody’s played the game before, so once you get in between the lines and start playing it doesn’t matter how many people are in the stands, where you’re playing, or what the situation is. You just kind of roll with it, and it feels good to be back in it., that kind of deal. It was fun. Anxiety, not nervousness.”

Speaking of people in the stands, playing for state championships in Texas means playing in front of big crowds, so I asked him what the numbers were like when he played in the championships.

“In high school, the biggest crowd I played in front of was 39-40 thousand. That kind of gets you prepared for this. Like I said, whether it 40 thousand or three people in the stands, once you get in between the lines you don’t really realize who’s watching or how many people are in the stands until you do something big, and then you hear how many people. But, between the whistles, between the lines, you don’t really know or care who’s in the stands.”

Not when you are playing a game, and just having fun.

Just some tidbits to start;

Walk-on kicker, Kevin Lopez, an El Paso kid, will be getting his degree in Business Administration in December. Good kid, nice to see him doing well in the classroom, too.

A scout from the New York Giants was making the rounds, and today he was in El Paso to watch our team’s practice. He wasn’t looking at anyone in particular, just browsing. At least that is what he told me. I don’t suppose he would be giving away that information, anyway.

Long snapper, Matt Camilli was snapping today, but he isn’t expected to play anytime soon.

Defensive End, Adam Ayala, was kind of easing around today. He wasn’t involved in the action.

The team is practicing without pads. CMP is trying to get them ready, without getting anyone hurt, getting dinged up players healthy, and trying to be able to go into Thursday’s game with lively legs.

James Nelson was back on the right tackle position of the offensive line today. That put the line back into their semi-normal positions.

Now, on to the information everyone wants to know. Who was taking the snaps at quarterback, and how did they look?

Most of the work was split in half going to Lamaison and Meger. At first it was with the running backs. Then, they moved into the passing game. Lamaison looked a little lacking in zip, it seemed to me, at first. But, having said that, he seemed to be hitting his receivers on both short and long passes. By the end of practice, he looked like he did before, as far as I could tell.

Meger looked like Meger. I have been singing his praises for a couple of years now. He scraps. He gets the ball to where it is supposed to be. He has an instinctive feel in the pocket. He looked good.

Lamaison was asked how he felt after practice, and he said he felt fine. He said he figured he might be a little sore after practice, but will get the ice and be taken care of by the trainers and feel fine. Tomorrow will probably be a better indication of how well he is back. He said he was told to practice hard, to see what he could do, not to hold back, as that would make it harder to measure how well he was.

I will have interviews with CMP, Lamaison, Meger, and others coming on line, soon. I’m just trying to get the rest of the pressconference uploaded, and then I will be uploading more interviews.

That’s all for today.