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MTSU players organize summer practices

Middle Tennessee State’s summer football workouts may be voluntary. But to skip one, you have to answer to the serious stare and big biceps of Benny Cunningham.

“I’m a running back. So if a running back misses, he’s got to talk to me,” said Cunningham, a former Goodpasture standout.

“Each position group has their own guys that players have to answer to, and I don’t know how every group does it. For the running backs, I’m going to tell them, ‘You’d better be out here if you want any chance of playing.’ ”

It’s simply a warning, but it sounds like a threat. That’s a tactic players can take during the summer when college football coaches, per NCAA rules, must leave their pupils to themselves.

Cunningham, a rising junior, is among a handful of Blue Raiders taking responsibility for running on-field, players-only practices this summer.

Each position group has its leaders. Their first unofficial job is to badger players into 100 percent attendance at the three-day-a-week workouts, which include group drills and 7-on-7 passing scrimmages in shorts and T-shirts in Floyd Stadium.

Some team leaders text or call teammates. Others said they would make a personal visit to convince players of the importance of the workouts, if needed. Fortunately, these offseason captains — dubbed “the committee” — said participation has been very good.

“You can’t miss this without a real good excuse. It can’t be just because you’re laying in bed,” said defensive end Gorby Loreus, a rising senior. “If you miss, you’ve got to face the committee. It won’t be just one of us. It’ll be all of us because to be a great team, we’ve got to stick together.”

Workouts are regarded as voluntary but players said participation and work ethic have not been a problem. That could stem from winter leadership meetings run by strength and conditioning coach Russell Patterson or Coach Rick Stockstill’s spring focus on building leadership on the young team.

“Our focus in workouts and everything since last season has been about being organized and mature as a team,” said offensive lineman Brandon McLeroy, a rising senior. “We come out here with a plan. You have to do that or it would be chaos.”

Players meet at Floyd Stadium each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening, with exceptions for weather and breaks from summer school. There are no coaches, just a trainer present in case of injuries or illness.

The structure resembles regular-season practices, minus the pads, jerseys and general decorum (unabashed trash-talking is part of the fun of players-only practices).

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Offensive lineman Danny Watkins was picked 23rd overall by the Philadelphia Eagles during Thursday night’s NFL draft becoming just the fourth Canadian to ever be selected in the first round.

“A lot has been said about Danny’s age,” Eagles coach Andy Reid told reporters in Philadelphia, “but we felt he was as good as any player in the draft. We want to maintain a strong offensive line, we want to be the strongest line in the National Football League, and this a step toward that.

The three other Canadian players picked in the first round of the NFL draft were: offensive lineman Tony Mandarich (2nd overall by the Green Bay Packers in 1989), running back Tim Biakabutuka (8th overall by the Carolina Panthers in 1996) and offensive lineman Mike Schad (23rd overall by the Los Angeles Rams in 1986).

“His clock started a little later for this sport … but he took to the game right away and was so productive.”

Last year, Watkins was selected in the first round of the Canadian Football League draft by the B.C. Lions. If he ever ends up in the CFL the Lions will retain his rights.

“We had the opportunity to go to a fire hall today and meet with them and they brought us in with open arms and embraced us as one of their own. It was something I’ve never seen before. It’s just a big brotherhood from coast to coast and these are guys you’ll never forget and you only met them for one day.”

“I mean this is unreal,” Watkins told ESPN when asked about the ovation he received after his name was announced at Radio City Music Hall. “I knew the boys were going to be here, but I thought there was going to be a riot.

Prior to enrolling at Butte, where he took a fire sciences program, Watkins worked as a firefighter. Watkins invited five of his former colleagues from the West Kelowna Fire Rescue hall to join him in New York for the draft.  

The 26-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., accomplished the feat despite only starting his football career four years ago at Butte College in northern California. After two years at Butte he earned a scholarship at Baylor University in Waco, Tex.

“We’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with some of the members of the fire department in New York and they’ve embraced us as one of their own and took us in and showed us a great couple of days and I invited them as well to come to Radio City. It’s been a heck of a past couple of days.

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