Spring Practice ?

[Mad Hatter]

Hey can anyone tell me if u can go to the spring practices for ut ??? any info would be welcome.

[jtk1519]

Spring pracitice starts Feb. 27, but I have heard that all practices will be closed to the public. Apparently, Mack is still steamed about the cell phone picture incident. That and I think he is trying to take some pressure off of Colt and Jevan. The Spring game (which obviously will be open to the public) is on April 1.

[Texasfrog]

Spring pracitice starts Feb. 27, but I have heard that all practices will be closed to the public. Apparently, Mack is still steamed about the cell phone picture incident. That and I think he is trying to take some pressure off of Colt and Jevan. The Spring game (which obviously will be open to the public) is on April 1.

All practices at UT will be closed from what I read. Hey JTK, sounds like Jordan Shipley has worked himself back into playing form. I think he's going to be huge this coming season if he is 100%.

[jtk1519]

All practices at UT will be closed from what I read. Hey JTK, sounds like Jordan Shipley has worked himself back into playing form. I think he's going to be huge this coming season if he is 100%.

There has been a lot of speculation that he is back to 100% and the coaches feel he is ready to play right off the bat. If you look at the 2006 roster that was just released, Tyrell Gatewood has moved from WR (the position he was recruited for and played up until this past season) to LB. There is some though that the coaches made that move because they are confident that Shipley will be contributing.

[jtk1519]

BTW, this is what Mack had to say on closing the practices...

On if practices will remain closed: We thought last year when the blogging came up with Jordan's injury, it scared me a lot. Not for a hamstring as much as a broken neck, I have seen a bone exposed in practice, Aaron Harris was knocked out for a number of minutes with a crowd at night and his parents just happened to be there and went to the hospital with him. If you are the head coach and are responsible to those parents, and everybody is on the Internet now, and if somebody reads that their son is laying their unconscious or they have him on a stretcher and they are not moving him and we can't find the parents, and they are reading it on the Internet, that's just not right. We can't do that. It doesn’t mean that the blogging is wrong, it just means for us it's not the thing to do. We only closed practice for that reason. After we closed it, the staff and I felt that there was probably more focus with the team. There wasn’t as much talking and they didn’t have to fight rumors as much in the stands every night over who looked good and who looked bad and I didn’t have parents calling me over who said who looked good and who looked bad. Very honestly, we felt that after the year was over that it was probably the best to do it for our team, other than the blogging, which we couldn’t open it with the blogging. (Athletics Director) DeLoss (Dodd) tries to be as open with you as possible; I try to be as well. DeLoss was 100 percent behind the closing after Jordan got hurt last year, because it scared the parents a lot.

Also, for what it's worth, the Texas coaches have spent the off-season working with the Indianapolis Colts coaching staff including HC Tony Dungy and QB coach Jim Caldwell. This is the direction that the Texas offense is headed and I think with two freshman QBs, Mack really wants to allow them to learn and play with out huge crowds on the sideline critiquing everything they do.

[Texasfrog]

BTW, this is what Mack had to say on closing the practices...



Also, for what it's worth, the Texas coaches have spent the off-season working with the Indianapolis Colts coaching staff including HC Tony Dungy and QB coach Jim Caldwell. This is the direction that the Texas offense is headed and I think with two freshman QBs, Mack really wants to allow them to learn and play with out huge crowds on the sideline critiquing everything they do.

Ya.. I dont really have a problem with practice being closed. The reports will come out on how the team looks. Sounds like the Texas coaching staff really wants to protect the privacy of the team and players. That's "Fair enough" for me. It sounds like Shipley is pretty healthy. They might still keep him out of some hardcore action but I feel pretty good that come late July he'll be 110%. He (IMO) could be a major X-factor this coming season with his all around ability. He could help take up some of the possession catching that David Thomas did so well. Hopefully J. Finley also steps up and becomes a major factor at the H-back position.

Sounds like Rod Muckelroy is going to get the chance at MLB. I think he is going to be very solid also.

PS. I read that Coach Browna & Davis still want to keep the "zone read" offense.

[jtk1519]

Ya.. I dont really have a problem with practice being closed. The reports will come out on how the team looks. Sounds like the Texas coaching staff really wants to protect the privacy of the team and players. That's "Fair enough" for me. It sounds like Shipley is pretty healthy. They might still keep him out of some hardcore action but I feel pretty good that come late July he'll be 110%. He (IMO) could be a major X-factor this coming season with his all around ability. He could help take up some of the possession catching that David Thomas did so well. Hopefully J. Finley also steps up and becomes a major factor at the H-back position.

Sounds like Rod Muckelroy is going to get the chance at MLB. I think he is going to be very solid also.

PS. I read that Coach Browna & Davis still want to keep the "zone read" offense.

I read some very interesting quotes from Mack about Shipley. Mack said Jordan is physically just fine, but he is far from being 100% mentally. Aside from the fact that he really hasn't played a game of football in a couple of years, there is also the fact that Jordan is recovering from a pretty serious injury. Sometimes this will cause an athlete to be hesitant on the field or cause him to lose focus. From what I have heard, Jordan is as great as he has ever been... from a physical standpoint.

I would imagine that the coaches are going to do a lot to protect him, but I also think they will work him harder than almost any other player. He needs to get used to the speed of the game again and he needs to learn to play without hesitation or apprehension. That is only going to come with repeated practice and I would imagine that is what Jordan will be doing this Spring.

A Jordan Shipley that is healthy mentally and physically is going to provide an enormous boost to the team. Aside from adding just that much more depth, Texas will have the ability to line up in 4 WR packages with one of the sickest group of WRs in the nation... Sweed, Pittman, The Quan and Shipley. Throw in J-Mike, Ramonce and some of the new guys and you have a disgusting combination of depth and skill. I think that is why you saw the Texas coaches working with the Colts coaches.

[Mad Hatter]

i agree the colts offense is amazing if we can get our offense to work for us like they do i can only image what will happen :eek: