August 20, 2003
Members of the Texas A&M football team whooped and hollered as coach Dennis Franchione announced after the Wednesday evening practice that the team had earned a day off from practicing.
After practicing at least once each day since August 6, Franchione said his team has been pushed hard and has worked hard and could use a day off the practice field.
"I've pushed them hard and they've worked hard," Franchione said. "They deserve it. I feel like right now this is the best thing for our football team to have a day and let our legs recover a little bit."
The day won't be a vacation day for the Aggies as Franchione and his staff have meetings planned with the team.
"We'll have a lot of meetings and things like that," Franchione said. "We've been going nonstop and where we're at right now I think it's best to take a day and let our legs recover. We can get a lot covered watching film and things like that. We'll come back and have two on Friday."
The Aggies practiced twice on Wednesday at the grass practice facility.
A&M's tight end position now has a starter named as Franchione announced that redshirt freshman Taylor Schuster has won the position.
"Taylor Schuster will start," Franchione said. "He's had a good camp and deserves it. He's gotten better and better."
Franchione later said that junior Thomas Carriger will return to the tight end position after spending a couple of days working on the offensive line. Franchione said that it would take too long to teach the position to a player that has not been working at the spot. He said they could revisit the subject in the spring, but in the interim he expects Carriger will compete and work hard to get his tight end position back.
The Aggies will return to practice on Friday before undergoing Franchione's "Mock Game Day" on Friday evening and on Saturday.
A&M is preparing for its first game which is against Arkansas State on Saturday, August 30, at 7 p.m. at Kyle Field.