Week Two! 8/24/09

Week two has almost come to a close. Auburn is less than 13 days. Are you kidding me? I have been to many big time college games and stadiums, but not to watch your son preform on the field in front of 92K. I am very proud of his accomplishments on and off the field, but what book was I supposed to read to prepare me for this phase of his life? I am totally amazed how regimented college football is. I mean I knew, but I really had no clue. They are up early in the mornings for workouts and practice. They have position meetings everyday. They practice and scrimmage in the late afternoons and evenings. I recall Matt saying that they are now on Coach Dooley's schedule and the only thing that is not is when you need to take a crap. Coach said he could not control that. I have to mention something that I think is very funny. This has happened several times to Matt so far. He goes out to get in his car and his car is missing. In the beginning he thought it had been stolen, but in reality 6 to 8 of his very cool team mates are picking his car up and moving it to another parking spot. Who knows how many more times this will happen, but I think it is a hoot. I talked to Matt Monday night and he was happy with how thing went during the scrimmage. He was 5 for 5 with a long of 50 in live situations. His kickoffs were average in his book. I am sure they were just fine. Tuesday morning was photo day along with all of the other stuff they do. They took team photos and individual photos. I can't wait to see them. I did not talk to Matt on Wednesday, but from the quote that Coach Dooley gave in one of his many interviews, I would say that he is doing OK! Kicking in: Dooley said recently freshman kicker Matt Nelson has shown a lot of good things during the early practice sessions."We have a chance to be better than we have been since the really good kickers who've been in our program," Dooley said. "He's everything we'd hoped he'd be." Man, if that does not make you have a lump in your throat, I don't know what will. Practice and scrimmages continued on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I did not talk to Matt on Friday, but heard that he was not happy with some of his kickoffs and a couple of his field goal attempts. I am OK with him being upset! To be the best at something, you must continue to push yourself and never be satisfied! When I talked to Matt early this afternoon, he had just finished a meeting where they were working with certain offensive and defensive players who have the possibility to be interviewed after a game or during the week for an upcoming game. I guess there are certain things you can and can not say. This is really cool that Matt was one of those players. They have a scrimmage tonight where they will practice live situations with only 4 minutes being left in the game. Some situations they will be ahead and some they will be behind in live mock game situations. For those of you who are wondering, I am not giving any super secret information. Maybe some inside information on my feelings. All of this information is available to the public at the La Tech Athletic Site and the Shreveport Times. I am waiting for Matt to call me this evening and let me know how it went. About 7:54 PM I got a call from Matt. It goes like this, "Pop's, I had a bad night!" Ok, what does that mean? " I went 3 for 3 with a live rush and my kickoffs were 3.99 hangtime on average, between the seven & four yard line with some wind in our face." Sounds good to me, what is the problem? "I am just stoked that we as a team had a good night" "My long was 48 yards with 3.2 seconds to go in the game" Coach Dooley was excited! "It was open practice so there was a lot of fans there" Here are Coach Dooley's comments after during an interview after the scrimmage. "Freshman kicker Matt Nelson went 3-for-3 on field goal attempts including a 48-yard field goal made kicking from near the left hash mark. "I thought the offense did a nice job on the last drive of the scrimmage," commented Dooley. "Up 17 [points], they took it all the way down and kicked a field goal to win the game. Matt Nelson continues to show that he has a chance to be a very good kicker here at Tech, going 3-for-3 with two game-winners. OK, I am needing a ton of underwear for the season. Care packages are very much needed! This is so cool! La Tech is going to turn some heads this year! There is a picture that I have in this blog that is a series of numbers. I am a believer in numbers. Matt, Tyler and I have this strange phenomenon that happens quite often. We see the number 619 (Pop's DOB) often and randomly. It could be forwards, backwards, on a clock, license plate or on TV. It just does not matter, it shows up daily in most cases. I happen to be checking things out at the Tech Team Shop They have a counter counting down to the Auburn kickoff. When I got on the page it said 16 days, 19 hours and 33 minutes. This is very cool so I did a print screen so I could send it to Matt. What I did not realize until I looked at the screen capture was the seconds were at 48. Oh my gosh! What does this mean? Well we have the number 619, 33 is Matt's La Tech number and 48 was his high school number. This is a real screen capture. This is why I believe our numbers are aligned. Weird right? I can't wait for week 3 to get here. I have been trying on multiple pairs of underwear this just to see what it feels like. It feels pretty strange! I know I am going to need several pairs during the Auburn game. I am not going to lie! Pop's is really a nervous wreck. Our journey to Auburn will start in less than 2 weeks. Until we visit again, have a blessed week. College Football Dad!