March 30, 2009

I had a wonderful, safe spring break and I feel blessed that everybody on the team had a safe spring break as well. I went to Panama City with some of my friends, but I kept the fact that we were starting spring practice when we returned in the back of my mind. I went on a two-mile run every day to try to stay in shape for football.

The day before the first practice I found myself a little nervous, but I tried not to put myself under too much pressure. I want us to have a good spring practice. My goals are to learn as much as possible, to become the best player that I can be and always make steps forward, never back.

After the first day of practice I found myself a little relieved. I sat through all my classes thinking of how practice was going to be and when I got there it was the same normal routine. I noticed my mind was a little ahead of my body, which was probably because of spring break. On Wednesday, things started clicking better. My passes were a little sharper, reads became a little slower, and it was just a good day.

We went to full pads on Friday and I knew the defense would be flying around like mad dogs. When we went against the defense for the first time it was obvious that they won the battle. Personally, I don't think I did too well. I had a couple of missed reads and we couldn't move the ball at all. At the end of practice we faced off again and we moved the ball a little bit better, but overall I wasn't pleased with my performance.

I found myself a little discouraged and I was trying to figure out what I could do differently the next day. I was worrying myself to death and then I saw one of the offense line coaches, Chris Culton, and he took a big burden off my shoulders. Coach Culton said to me, "Hey, let's have a good day tomorrow." Something so simple meant so much to me at the time. Those words told me to not beat myself up for how I thought I practiced today because it's practice, and to not put so much pressure on myself.

I'm about to say my prayers and try to go to sleep.....can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for Navy Football...