Game 2: Linfield vs Southern Oregon Via Google Maps

Click here for large Google map

The ADvantage has what you need for your game day travel or if you're at home we have the links for you to catch all the action. Catdomealumni.com has crafted a 2008 game schedule using the power of Google Maps. All you need to do is click on the Wildcat Logo number "2" at midfield and a pop up window will appear that will direct you to all of our cool links. If you don't want to work with that small window just click on the link below to go to the large Linfield Schedule map.

The Links that are included are:
-Map Location of the Linfield Tailgate area (for those new to Linfield football)
-Game Previews from Linfield and SOU
-Links to Video and Audio Broadcasts
-Information on Southern Oregon University
-Ect.
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Game 2: Linfield vs Southern Oregon: Finally a Linfield home game

In what has seemed like a football eternity Linfield finally has their home opener. The beginning of this season has felt disjointed for the Linfield faithful as the ‘Cats didn’t start the season until Sept 13th but the game was down in Texas which pretty much kept most fans back home. Then after a bitter loss the ‘Cats get to sit at home during the Bye-week but now we get 8 straight weeks of games where Linfield fans can easily make all 8 contests (5 at home, 1 in Portland, and 2 in Tacoma).

The ADvantage will have something new all week long as tomorrow we’ll have our updated Linfield Google schedule post, on Wednesday we’ll have our Game Preview, Thursday I’ll let you know where you can purchase your “Catdomealumni.com T-Shirts” before the game along with my NWC Pick ‘Em post, and Friday will be our Link Dump post (Around the Catdome’Osphere).

I can’t wait for Saturday and to see how our ‘Cats come out of the gates versus an always very tough SOU program. It should be a slugfest! Go ‘Cats!

Around the CatdomeO'sphere

It's Friday so it's time once again to get you caught up with news around the Northwest Conference in the ADvantage's weekly link dump.

Ugh…Willamette starts the season 2-0 (Statesman Journal)

HSU Tops ‘Cats (Abilene Reporter News)

Rats give Leopards the slip (The Whitworthian)

Panthers mark the Oaks (Redwood city daily news)

Loggers Kavin Williams has field day with crappy SCIAC team (Tacoma News Tribune)

Pios are trying to put one good foot in front of another (Tacoma News Tribune)

Lutes are listless in opener (Tacoma News Tribune)

Young Lutes are young (PLU’s The Mast)

Week 3: NWC Pick 'Em

An Annual tradition for members of the D3boards.com is the conference “Pick ‘Em” contest. Here is a link to the NWC Pick ‘Em board, however, you must be a registered member in order to see or post on these boards. It only takes a minute to register and doesn’t cost a dime. NWC Pick ‘Em

Wildcat11 went 6 for 8 last week. I picked Willamette to lose and the ‘Cats to win and we know how those game out. 6 for 8 might sound good but I dropped from 3rd to 5th out of 17 posters. I’m hoping for a clean sweep during week 3 of NWC action.

Puget Sound over Claremont-M-S - Kavin Williams played well vs a perennial SCAIC powder puff and I expect UPS to continue to mop up the lower half of the “we won’t play Linfield” conference.

Pomona-Pitzer over Lewis & Clark – I know people were excited that L&C beat a team with 20 dudes on the roster but the Pios are still terrible. Yes, the effort is there to move the program in the right direction but the best part of their season wrapped up two weeks ago.

Cal Lutheran over Pacific Lutheran – Yikes! PLU’s back up QB, Nick Caraballo, comes in for their injured starter, Michael Byrne, and goes 5 for 30 with 3 picks. Oh my. Again, PLU has some good young talent but that will not help them this year as they continue to take their lumps.

Oxy over Menlo – Menlo has shown as much life as 3-day old road kill. Oxy is going to murder them.

Southern Oregon over Willamette – OK so the Bearcats have made me a fool the past two weeks but eventually I’m going to be right and this is the week. The Bearcats play well at home but I think SOU is going to be too physical for them to overcome this time.

Redlands over Whitworth – Redlands was sharp in week one and Whitworth wasn’t. I base this pick on Redlands being at home, having a veteran team, and that the Rats still have many new pieces. Also for me, QB Kory Kemp has not come through in the play making department.

Bonus Game: Central over Wartburg (IIAC). This is a toss up but Wartburg took a bad loss last week so I’ll take the home team (Central)

Cats get Texas “2” Stepped

Sorry this is late but I've had a few rough days in getting back to Oregon and trying to take the sting off of Saturday's loss. On to the recap.

That sucked. Guess there’s no better way to put it than that. Yeah, our ‘Cats came back and took the late lead and came “this close” of pulling it out but bottom line is that losing sucks hard.

We can sit here and do all of the what-if’s but the bottom line is that Linfield didn’t do enough things right. We went down early, mounted a great comeback to only see it slip away in the waning moments of the game. The main lesson on this game? Don’t wait to get your back against the wall to start swinging.

Here is Wildcat 11’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” recap of week 1’s loss

The Good

2nd half adjustment/fire: Now this will come back in the “bad” category in terms of 1st half effort but the ‘Cats defense came out and did a great job in the 2nd half in clamping down on HSU. QB pressure that was pretty non-existent in the 1st half started to get to the ‘Cowboys QB Feaster and the ‘Boys running game started to get stuffed up. Throw out the slip and fall on 3rd down during the last drive and the ‘Cats showed some heart and skill on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

Travis Masters: It’s not a very complicated formula. You get Travis Masters the ball and good things happen. #5 led the contest in all purpose yards and scored two Linfield touchdowns (via the ground and the air). Keep finding ways to get him the ball.

Play of Cole Franklin: Linfield fans held their collective breath when starting quarterback Aaron Boehme took off his shoulder pads and was in obvious pain. But, Linfield fans have to feel good about the play of sophomore quarterback Cole Franklin. The kid is flat out electric in the open field. The thing I was most worried about is that Cole would get in the pocket, check his first receiver and if it wasn’t open he would pull it down and go. This wasn’t the case at all. He showed patience in the pocket but he does need to keep growing in terms of accuracy. The offense under Cole moved the ball well and I’m sure that the staff will tailor parts of the offense to his skills.

The Bad:

Coming out Flat: I don’t know if it was just trying to get their legs under themselves or jitters of a first game but I have no good explanation on why this group came out flat. I don’t buy talk of the extensive travel, getting in late, weather, etc. As a player you have to mentally prepare yourself for the hardship of not sleeping in your own bed, getting out of your comfort zone, and the breaks the home team’s can get. This isn’t about a lack of effort in the off season or in fall camp because these young men have been really busting their tails. This is a question that the players need to answer themselves but they cannot afford that type of uneven effort in two weeks.

Negative in Turnovers: Just a killer. Our ‘Cats really were moving the ball in the first half but the two turnovers at mid-field lead directly to 14 points for HSU. That was a big hole to get into. I know that both fumbles have Simon Lamson’s name next to it but the second TO is at no fault of the Sophomore. Option play, ball is pitched; the corner slipped the block and put a helmet right on Simon’s chin right when the ball got there. The first fumble is on Simon (he’ll own it and move on) but the second was a team turnover IMO. We’ve harped on this subject way too much and everyone knows that your chance of winning drops when you give it away more than the other team. I’m done with this subject.

Closing out the game: I don’t need to write much here besides we have to make plays when you have the other team on the ropes.

Not containing Carrillo: HSU’s #2 is gone after this season and I’m thankful for that. Once again he killed us with two TD’s and a two-point conversion.

The Ugly:

Bad injuries: For the second time down in Abilene the ‘Cats starting quarterback goes down in a bad manner. I can’t speak on the extent of the injury to Linfield starting QB Aaron Boehme but it didn’t look good….at all. I don’t like the fact when any player on any team goes down with a bad injury and this one hurts. Boehme earned the job, has the tools (physically and mentally), and I felt had a great year in store.

Also, our starting running back, Reggie Ford, left the game early with an injury. I don’t know the severity and I’m not going to guess on this blog. We really need his speed and play making ability back and I hope it’s not a bad injury.

While injuries are part of the game they do expose the depth and quality of your program. For those that fear the worse let me point to some injury examples of the not too distant Wildcat past.

-In 2000, Linfield’s 3-year starting tailback, Carl Haberberger, is lost early with an ACL injury when it looked like he was having an All-American type season.

-In 2002, returning 1st team All-NWC running back Marty Williams suffers a horrible knee injury early in the year.

- In 2003, Ray Lions who was the ‘Cats returning 1st team All-American safety is lost for the year in the first game with a broken vertebrae.

-In 2004, Linfield’s incredibly talented Defensive End, Kelly Bertrand, tears his ACL in the first game of the year and misses the first 7 weeks of the season.

-Later in 2004 Linfield’s starting tailback Thomas Ford breaks his thumb in the first round of the playoffs and is lost for the season.

However in each of these examples a Wildcat stepped into the vacant roll and got the job done. 2000, a young Marty Williams and young David Russell stepped in and help Linfield to a prefect 9-0 regular season. 2002, David Russell assumes the great bulk of the running back duties and turns in a 1st team All-American season while helping Linfield to a 10-1 season. 2003, Ty Smith fills in for Lions and helps the Wildcats to an 11-1 season. 2004, a young Nick Soo fills in for Bertrand and becomes a key player for that championship team. Then, we all know that Riley Jenkins steps in for T.Ford during the playoffs and winds up being the Stagg Bowl MVP.

The lesson? When it’s your time to step up in a Wildcat uniform, seize the opportunity, because you never know just how good it might turn out.

Around the CatdomeO'sphere

Welcome back to the ADvantage's weekly link dump. Some good reading around the NWC this week. Enjoy.

I’m a ‘Lute….WHEEEE!!!!!! (Tacoma News Tribune)

Loggers terrible defensive backs are now good. (Tacoma News-Tribune)

Linfield’s Travis Masters can fly (News-Register)

‘Cats feel that losing sux (Statesman Journal)

Linfield’s Aaron Boehme would like to unload on somebody (Everett’s HeraldNet)

Menlo Wasn’t Stout enough *rimshot* (Redwood City Daily News)

Bearcats corn cobbers (Statesman Journal)

L&C finally beat somebody (Oregonian)

Cowboys cross up Eagles in comeback (La Crosse Tribune)

Tacoma Teams tune up (Tacoma News-Tribune)

Northwest Conference Pick 'Em

An annual tradition for the memebers of D3boards.com is the conference "Pick 'Em" contests. Here is a link to the NWC Pick 'Em board, however, you must be a registered member in order to see or post on these boards. It only takes a minute to register and doesn't cost a dime. NWC Pick 'EM

Old WC11 sits in 3rd place out of 17 after going 2 for 3 last week. I came "this close" to taking Willamette over Concordia but the Cobbers strong tradition baited me into picking the Cobbs. My mistake.

So here are WC11's week 2 picks for the NWC games plus the bonus game of the week.

St. Olaf over the visiting PLU. The 'Lutes are so young and this is a tough trip to start off on. I have no idea how the 'Lutes will perform so I'm taking the home MIAC team.

Puget Sound over Pomona-Pitzer. The Logs get to chew up on the soft SCIAC teams before getting to the meat of their schedule. I'll be keeping an eye on Kavin Williams this week.

Chapman over Menlo. The Oaks are at home for the 2nd week in row but I'm still not sure if/when they are going to start putting up good performances. Chapman is not a world-beater program but they are solid enough to get the win.

Claremont M-S over L&C. I know people are happy for the Pios but I would be shocked if they have improved that much in such a short time.

Rats over LaVerne. Coach Tully has said that Whitworth hasn't thought about Redlands at all and all their focus is on LaVerne. I suspect LaVerne to get ran over all day long here.

Cal-Lutheran over Willamette. The Bearcats have been very quiet about QB Ryan Whitcomb's knee injury but I suspect he won't be in LA this weekend and that should spell doom for the Bearcats. I would take the Bearcats with Whitcomb but not if he's out.

Bonus Game: UW-Whitewater over UW-EauClaire. I think UWW will be able to get it done on defense but this should be a very tight game.

Week 1 Preview: Linfield @ Hardin Simmons

It’s game week! It’s time to start kicking up dust! It’s time to strap in, kick butt, and take names. Man, I’m so pumped up that I think I could get my 32 year old body out there for at least one series….well maybe not.

However, as a fan I’m very happy it’s that time of year where our ‘Cats hit the field looking to win ball games and play the game the Linfield way. As usual the ‘Cats don’t have the luxury of easing into a season with a lesser opponent but the ‘Cats once again jump into the fire with all four paws.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be making the journey down to Texas and in the process try not to get blow away by Hurricane Ike. The ADvantage is sticking to last year’s format of better get to know a foe, keys to victory, and outcome (Wildcat victory). So get ready for some football Texas style.

Know Your Foe- (99% ripped off the Wikipedia page for Cowboy)

Cowboys – Did you know that the word “cowboy” appears to be a direct translation of vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback. Now don’t let the name of “cowpoke” confuse you because that word comes from the dudes that would proddle cows into railcars using long poles. That defiantly doesn’t sounds as cool as being a manger of cattle.

-The roots of the American cowboy tradition came from Spain as Spanish settlers brought their cattle raising traditions to the Americas.

- In pop culture, the cowboy and the gunslinger are often associated with one another. In reality, working ranch hands had very little time for anything other than the constant, hard work involved in maintaining a ranch. Likewise, cowboys are often shown fighting with American Indians. However, the reality was that, while cowboys were armed against both predators and human thieves, and often used their guns to run off people of any race who attempted to steal, or rustle cattle, nearly all actual armed conflicts occurred between Indian people and cavalry units of the U.S. Army.

-Hardin Simmons University was founded in 1891 and was then known as Abilene Baptist College so Linfield and HSU do have Baptist roots. People did refer to Linfield’s athletic teams as the Baptist before adopting the nickname of “Wildcats”. Go Baptists!

-HSU has a little over 2,400 students and holds a 13:1 student to teacher ratio.

-Some famous alumni from HSU include Dan Blocker who played “Hoss” in the famous TV series Bonanza, Doyle Brunson who is a well know poker player, and Stedman Graham who is best known as Oprah Winfrey’s ex-boyfriend. GOTCHA OPRAH!

Wildcat11’s keys to victory:

Limit the legs of Feaster. The Junior quarterback is a playmaker with his legs just as much as he is with his arm. Feaster does have the ability to pull down the rock and take off for big gains or extend the play by scrambling to allow his WR corp to break off and get open. It’s key for Linfield to do their best to contain Feaster and not allow the big scrambles. That is an easy thing to say but much tougher in practice.

Put the wraps on Mychal Carrillo. Linfield fans are all too familiar with Carrillo who has scored TD’s in both the 2006 and 2007 contests. The senior is HSU’s best offensive player and a game breaker whenever he touches the ball. I look for HSU to try their best to get Carrillo the ball (in the air or on the ground). The ‘Cats have to know where Carrillo is at all times and try to limit his touches.

Convert scoring chances. In a tough road game a key component is not coming up empty when you have scoring opportunities. The ‘Cats have one of the best kickers in the country in Scott Birkhofer so if Linfield is within his range the ‘Cats have a chance for at least 3 points. Touchdowns are always better but Linfield has to feel good about having a weapon like Birkhofer.

Unknown HSU defense vs Linfield’s unknown players. A big question mark for Linfield is what defense the ‘Cats will see. HSU brought in two former DIII coaches to Co-Coordinate its defense and the scheme has changed.

I’m not even sure if the ‘Cats have film from the LAX game so our ‘Cats are at a disadvantage there. Also, we know we have a number of new starters on offense and in our defensive secondary. The talent for Linfield is there, trust me these kids are VERY talented, but you don’t truly know how that talent will perform until the rubber meets the road.

A key will be how fast our traditional passing attack will adjust to the HSU changes and how fast our new kids clear the butterflies and just play ball.

Overall

HSU is a tradition rich program that, like Linfield, has something to prove this year. I truly believe that if the ‘Cats don’t hurt themselves with turnovers (LAX killed themselves last week vs HSU with TO’s deep in their own territory) and do a solid job on Feaster then there is no reason why Linfield can’t will this game by at least 10 points.

Linfield CAN be that good this season. The ‘Cats have some major speed on offense and defense and I feel the new starters will perform up to the staff’s expectations. Linfield was in a haze in 2006 the first time they traveled to Hardin Simmons but that haze is long gone and Coach Smith has been putting his stamp on our great program. Linfield fans are going to love this team.

Cats by 10 points

Week 1: Linfield @ Hardin Simmons University via Google Maps

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Catdomealumni.com and the ADvantage has just about everything you need in order either get to the campus of Hardin Simmons, where to go to read up on each team, and have hot links for the radio broadcasts, school information, etc. This is all possible thanks to the power of Catdomealumni.com's Google schedule.

All you need to do is just click on the Wildcat Logo in the above map and a capsule will pop up with all the information you need before kickoff. You can also click on the "View Lager Map" to go to Google Maps and see the complete schedule.

Come back tomorrow for the ADvantage's game breakdown.

Week 1: ‘Cats looking to gun down ‘Boys

It’s finally here: Game week. No more doubles or scrimmages for Linfield. The ‘Cats are just a few days worth of preparation away from game #1. Catdomealumni.com will be in Abilene for our 2nd time and hope our ‘Cats can make the outcome a little different than in 2006.

The ADvantage will be busy all week too. Tomorrow, we’ll get the Wildcat’s Google Map Schedule all fired up for week 1. Wednesday, we’ll break out our game preview and follow that up with picks/thoughts on the NWC weekend and our link dump post on Thursday (CatdomeO’sphere).

I’ll be in flight on Friday but I’ll try to get a little something up on the web about the travel and

the boring experience that is the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

Fall Camp: Line work

WC11 presents to you the last video of our Fall camp series.

The boys up front on both sides of the ball will play a key role in the performance of the 2008 Wildcats and the video above will give a small glimpse on the daily grind of the big fellas.

The offensive line is lucky to have coach Doug Hire as their line coach. Coach Hire is so knowledable and a great teacher for his young men. Defensive line coach Gary Thorson is returning for his 2nd year and had a great start heading up the D-line. His front four had an outstanding 2nd half of 2007 and Coach Thorson is looking for his 2008 D-line to pick up where they left off.

Fall Camp: Tackle Circuit

Ahhh the tackle circuit. One of my favorite parts of the defensive practice week. Hitting the various stations to work on various skills needed to make a clean tackle on an offensive player.

Catdomealumni.com (WC11) was at practice on Monday to bring the tackle circuit to you the Linfield masses. All I can say about defending the cut block "control the head, control the body"

Tomorrow we'll bring you some offensive and defensive linework.

Fall Camp: Coach Rutschman coaches up kickoff return team

College Hall Of Fame coach and Linfield Living Legend Ad Rutschman still has his coaching cap on as he has continued to head up the 'Cats Kickoff Return Team.

The clip above is a small sample of the Legend in action as he shapes up another lethal 'Cat return team.

Around the CatdomeO’sphere

-Willamette Season Preview “Hey did you know we beat Linfield last year?” (WU athletics)

-Winning Season isn’t enough (Oregonian)

-Rats are looking to 3-peat (Kxly.com)

-Cats Roster has been posted (no numbers yet) (Linfield Athletics)

-Former ‘Cats heading up local HS program at Willamina (statesman journal)

-Linfield Football Hall of Famer passes away (Honolulu Advertiser)

Camp Diary: WR Trevor Patterson

In ripping off an idea from Johnniefootball.com I asked Linfield WR Trevor Patterson to keep a loose diary about the first full week of fall camp. Trevor is battling for a starting position and should be a big contributor for the 'Cats this season. Huge props to Trevor for being honest and giving us all a small glimps of the ups and down of fall camp.

----------------

8/22/08

Second day of camp! First day was exciting but boring just all paper work! Today was a good day for me and I think our entire team. We really got to see some big gains in our testing and I think all the credit goes to (Coach Neil) Fendall and his program. Also, the team’s commitment to the 7 am workouts in the spring and the working out during the summer. For me I was real excited about my testing. Didn’t have my best number but I was sidelined with a contusion on my femur and had not actually ran for about 5 months. Strictly pool and bike workouts. Wish I could say I was a 100% but I’m still battling some soreness and tenderness. I’m excited after today and ready to see what this team could do!

8/23/08

Our first day of actual practice! As a veteran meetings are getting a little boring but I’m still able to learn…don’t know it all yet! First practice did not go my way at all. I had sea legs and struggles with running crisp routes. It’s hard not to get down on myself but I understand I’m just a little rusty. Plus my teammates understand and are supportive. We looked good today for a first practice but of course we exposed what we need to work on. I’m definitely excited for the receivers, especially the boys on the outside. I think we have a good group of guys and all mesh really well even though many of us are opposites in were we came from and our playing styles. The way we contrast each other is going to be why we are going to surprise people. Now to the not so good part of the day. It was time for gassers. This year we ran a 300-yard shuttle instead of the usual dolphins. As a speed guy we had to run 3 of them and each had to be less than 65 seconds. It was more intense then what we have done in the past as far as testing your lungs but even though it was intended to be easy on out legs it definitely wasn’t! The one positive is no one got hurt and it was over a lot quicker! For me it was a little tough on the legs but it was great to see everyone come together and finish hard! Afterwards it was a race to strip down and get in the ice bath. Nothing better then 12 sweat almost naked football players in a stock tank from Wilco (Wilco is where I work!). My roommates and I then celebrated by buying Ben and jerry’s ice cream and playing NCAA 09! Another day in the books and one step closer to TEXAS!

8/24/08

Only one word to describe today and that’s SORE! It was definitely a relief to have the conditioning test over with and just concentrate on football! The best part of today though was the YOGA we did to help us relax and relieve some of the soreness. I’m getting frustrated because I feel rusty and am not making the plays I should be making! Definitely have a talented receiving crew this year and so many returners have improved tremendously! Sunday was just another day in the 2008 football camp!

8/25/08

I am still struggling with my return from my knee injury. I am hesitant on my breaks and am not making the plays I should be! I am happy with where I am at mentally and now I just need to get there physically. This camp has been a lot more emotionally driven then the past two years. Lots of excitement and competition between the offense and defense. There have been some close calls with taking things to far but that is to be expected when you’re playing such an intense game. We’ve done a good job of keeping our cool.

8/26/08

I have forgotten what day it is at this point! Every day seems the same. Lots of talking going on between offense and defense, which can be good and bad. Had a little altercation between and receiver and a corner today after the corner took a shot at a vulnerable receiver. I didn’t find anything wrong with the hit besides the fact that is was one of our teammates. Everything worked out and hopefully those kinds of hits will not happen again so we can stay healthy. It’s nice to see that intensity at practice.

8/27/08

First day of doubles! Practice in the morning was tough on the body, especially the knee. Couldn’t really get warmed up and my knee was really sore. Practice started out rough for us. Everyone was feeling sorry for them self and it showed. We started out real sluggish. Some seniors really stepped up and by the end of the day I thought things turned around and we finished strong. The second practice was fun; it was our first night practice. The offense really seems to be understanding the scheme and we are starting to execute like we can.

8/28/08

Swim Olympics were today! It was the best one of my three years here at Linfield. Once again the WR’s dominated every event but got absolutely embarrassed in the synchronized swimming. The DB’s had the best routine I’d seen but they were topped by the coach’s routine which included coach Nagel doing the solider boy.

8/29/08

Last double day! Coaches seem to be getting frustrated with the mental mistakes that are being made, especially the ones by the veterans. We have the potential to be real good and the only one that can stop us is ourselves.

8/30/08

We had a live scrimmage today and to be honest it was frustrating for the offense. We did not perform like I thought we should of and a lot of things we need to work on were shown! I am excited to see the improvement we make this week and show the defense how tough we are next Saturday! Now I am going to enjoy my first day off with the roomies!

Fall Camp: What's in the bag?

Whenever a Wildcat gets a ding or suffers a serious injury the first people on the scene is the athletic training staff. They've been taking great care of the 'Cats players for years and are vital to keeping the 'Cats nice and healthy during the team's respective season.

An athletic trainer is pretty easy to spot on the sideline because each of them carry a trainer's bag around their waist. Don't call it a "fanny pack" because that might lead to a roll of tape getting chucked at your head but these "bags" carry many of the tricks of the trade.

So we decided to ask Linfield head athletic training Tara Lepp "What's in the bag?".

Fall camp: Sights and Sounds

The beginning of camp is always an anxious time as new faces are adjusting to a new level of football or to a new team. Teaching technique and scheme are taking place in a concentrated time frame and at a break neck speed in order to get ready for that first game.

Here is just a very small sample of some of the sights and sounds from last Saturday's practice as the 'Cats work on getting into winning form.

Tomorrow we'll ask Linfield head athletic trainer Tera Lepp what's in the medical/trainer bag.

Fall Camp: The 300-Yard Shuttle

During the first couple of days of each Linfield fall camp the 'Cats legs get a test of where they are at in terms of endurance. This year the 'Cats ran a timed 300-yard shuttle where the staff grouped players by positions.

It's pretty simple; cones are set 25-yards apart and the players have to run down 25-yards touch the line and come back to the other line for one full set (50-yards). Do that 6 total times and you have a 300-yard shuttle. The linemen had 2 sets of 300-yard shuttles while everyone else had 3 total sets of shuttles.

Instead of just shooting a wide shot of the whole team I thought it would be better to just focus in on one player's experience. I thought that senior running back Dan Lever would be a great guy to follow so I trained the lens on #27 and off he went.

Tomorrow: Sights and Sounds of Linfield's Fall Camp.

Fall Camp: Sled Work

I'll admit it...the pop-up sled was my least favorite drill to run way back in the day. Didn't have best hips and I swear Coach Smith would let the hinges of our old sled rust up. However, it's a great drill to work on separation when taking on an offensive player.

Defensive Coordinator and Linebacker Coach, Jackson Vaughan, is working with his LB's and Rovers on the correct way to shoot the hands so our 'Cat defenders can make a play.

Tomorrow's video: Linfield running back Dan Lever's 300-Yard Shuttle Run.

Fall Camp: How to Snap, Hold, and Kick a field goal

Catdomealumni.com will be posting up some behind the Catdome footage and a few different video clips of fall camp.

Our first entry is brought to you by our PAT/Field Goal specialists has they give you a quick run down in how to Snap, Hold, and kick a field goal.

Tomorrow, we'll hit the pop up sled and work on taking on some blockers.