Post by elon_phan on Aug 7, 2007 21:28:30 GMT -5
NEW FACES FLOOD ELON CAMP
Adam Smith / Times-News
August 7
While chatting up a new arrival during the onset of Elon University’s training camp, redshirt senior offensive lineman Charlie Porterfield unearthed a startling nugget.
“I was in kindergarten when he was born,” Porterfield said, with a tinge of astonishment directed toward the year 1989.
That snapshot provided a fitting image of Monday’s big picture as Elon worked through its first football practice of the preseason, a two-hour session beneath the baking sun.
Of the 90 players present, a whopping 37 were true freshmen. Add two transfers to the mix and that makes for an immense amount of lumps of clay to mold.
“It’s drastic,” cornerback Irvin Raglin said. “There’s a lot of youth and it makes you feel kind of old. But at the same time you feel like you’ve got a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge to give back to the players.”
Porterfield and Raglin are two of six Elon seniors who, in comparison to the newcomers, are outnumbered by a ratio of more than 6 to 1.
Monday’s opener marked the first of the Phoenix’s 29 practices and given the plentiful number of fresh faces, acclimatization and assimilation are taking on even more meaning.
Elon starts its second season under coach Pete Lembo on Sept. 1 at South Florida.
“It’s a lot of fun and it’s a big challenge,” Lembo said. “That’s an incredibly large percentage of your team that just went through their first practice. But the flip side is, where else in the country would they be getting as many reps on Day 1 of practice as many of them got out here.
“The big thing is to temper yourself in terms of installation. We will install less offense than we could or would like to because of some of the young guys that are in the lineup right now.”
Tailback T.J. Clegg, a Southern Alamance High School product, is one of three seniors on Elon’s entire offensive depth chart.
He said he already has picked up on jokes and whispers and overall maturity levels that reveal a clear lack of experience from some Elon freshmen.
But he said the incomers possess plenty of ability.
“We can just tell how Coach Lembo’s changing things,” Clegg said. “The new talent that’s coming in here, you can see it, man. It’s that visible.”
Seventy players, 22 of them true freshmen, have worked out on campus this summer. So that has facilitated Elon’s familiarization process.
Raglin, a member of the team’s leadership council, said Elon’s six pack of seniors has taken ownership and responsibility to help in that department.
“When I came in as a high school player I didn’t know how to take practices and get in the cold tub and stretch and just do anything, basically,” Raglin said.
“Right now’s a good time for us to figure out how to work together and how to separate the age difference and just be a team,” Porterfield said.
Clegg spent several separate moments during Monday’s practice checking with new running back Dontay Taylor to ensure the true freshman was digesting the information being shoveled his way.
“A lot of the freshmen coming in, they were like, ‘Man, I thought you older guys were going to treat us like crap,’ ” Clegg said. “But you’re not supposed to haze. You’re supposed to unite and make everybody better.”
Adam Smith / Times-News
August 7
While chatting up a new arrival during the onset of Elon University’s training camp, redshirt senior offensive lineman Charlie Porterfield unearthed a startling nugget.
“I was in kindergarten when he was born,” Porterfield said, with a tinge of astonishment directed toward the year 1989.
That snapshot provided a fitting image of Monday’s big picture as Elon worked through its first football practice of the preseason, a two-hour session beneath the baking sun.
Of the 90 players present, a whopping 37 were true freshmen. Add two transfers to the mix and that makes for an immense amount of lumps of clay to mold.
“It’s drastic,” cornerback Irvin Raglin said. “There’s a lot of youth and it makes you feel kind of old. But at the same time you feel like you’ve got a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge to give back to the players.”
Porterfield and Raglin are two of six Elon seniors who, in comparison to the newcomers, are outnumbered by a ratio of more than 6 to 1.
Monday’s opener marked the first of the Phoenix’s 29 practices and given the plentiful number of fresh faces, acclimatization and assimilation are taking on even more meaning.
Elon starts its second season under coach Pete Lembo on Sept. 1 at South Florida.
“It’s a lot of fun and it’s a big challenge,” Lembo said. “That’s an incredibly large percentage of your team that just went through their first practice. But the flip side is, where else in the country would they be getting as many reps on Day 1 of practice as many of them got out here.
“The big thing is to temper yourself in terms of installation. We will install less offense than we could or would like to because of some of the young guys that are in the lineup right now.”
Tailback T.J. Clegg, a Southern Alamance High School product, is one of three seniors on Elon’s entire offensive depth chart.
He said he already has picked up on jokes and whispers and overall maturity levels that reveal a clear lack of experience from some Elon freshmen.
But he said the incomers possess plenty of ability.
“We can just tell how Coach Lembo’s changing things,” Clegg said. “The new talent that’s coming in here, you can see it, man. It’s that visible.”
Seventy players, 22 of them true freshmen, have worked out on campus this summer. So that has facilitated Elon’s familiarization process.
Raglin, a member of the team’s leadership council, said Elon’s six pack of seniors has taken ownership and responsibility to help in that department.
“When I came in as a high school player I didn’t know how to take practices and get in the cold tub and stretch and just do anything, basically,” Raglin said.
“Right now’s a good time for us to figure out how to work together and how to separate the age difference and just be a team,” Porterfield said.
Clegg spent several separate moments during Monday’s practice checking with new running back Dontay Taylor to ensure the true freshman was digesting the information being shoveled his way.
“A lot of the freshmen coming in, they were like, ‘Man, I thought you older guys were going to treat us like crap,’ ” Clegg said. “But you’re not supposed to haze. You’re supposed to unite and make everybody better.”