April 01, 2004
The Texas A&M football team drilled for nearly three hours in full pads on Thursday while gearing up for Saturday's scrimmage, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Kyle Field.
A&M head coach Dennis Franchione said there is a chance the scrimmage could be moved, even to Friday, if inclement weather is forecast for Saturday morning.
"We will lift and watch film on Friday and then we will scrimmage at 10:30 on Saturday morning," Franchione said. "If we get a bad weather report for Saturday morning -- if it's going to be a downpour at that time -- we may have to move it around. We could even move it to Friday afternoon, but I hope not."
Thursday's workout was the eighth of 15 spring practices for the Aggies, and Franchione said he's been pleased with the progress.
"It never goes as good and as fast as you want it to, but year two is so much easier than year one," Franchione said. "The guys have had tremendous recall. The redshirt freshmen who hadn't played have a real mission to take a position. Competition is good and the team has good spirit. We're getting better. I think that's evident. Because we haven't scrimmaged much, it's hard to gauge if we're as much better as we'd like to be, but we're taking some steps."
Franchione praised the effort and development of redshirt freshman defensive lineman Chris Harrington (Houston, Texas / St. Pius HS), whose uncle, Dave Elmendorf, was at practice. Elmendorf was an All-American in football and baseball in the early 1970s, and he will also serve as the analyst on the Aggie Football Radio Network next fall.
"Chris had a good day," Franchione said. "I'm going to make Dave Elmendorf come to practice every day from now on. I think that's an example of youth getting better. He's a redshirt freshman and this is our eighth practice, and he's feeling more confident and made some plays."