Stuck in the middle of a bye week, Spaulding Field held yet another typical, generally uneventful midweek football practice Thursday.
Thursday’s practice, with no game to look forward to on Saturday, was so routine that the special nature of the day nearly got lost in the shuffle.
Thursday was the first day of school.
True freshman cornerback Sheldon Price and redshirt senior quarterback Kevin Craft lie at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to college courses. Thursday was Price’s introduction to a lecture hall in Astronomy 3.
“I’ve never seen so many people at school before,” he said.
Craft, on the other hand, is a grizzled veteran.
“I’ve got a few under my belt,” he said. “This is my sixth year, and I am pretty much graduated. I have one class, and I didn’t have it today.”
Price’s competition at cornerback, redshirt sophomore Courtney Viney, said the team was aware of the walkout happening today but said that coaches instructed the players to go to show up to class on time and stay there.
“They do class checks on us,” Price said. “So (walking out) would have been a bad situation.”
As to the football side of the first day, coach Rick Neuheisel said that the bye week was convenient because it allowed the athletes to get settled in.
“This is the best time for a bye week when you are a quarter school,” Neuheisel said. “Because there is a lot going on, people moving into the dorms and looking to see who’s moving into the dorms, getting acclimated to class and that routine, it’s a lot going on. So it’s nice they don’t have to focus on a game plan.”
Depth chart update
Craft practiced again with the first-team yesterday while true freshman Richard Brehaut took reps with the second team. After starting Saturday against Kansas State in the place of a suspended Viney, Price continued to run with the first-team defense on Thursday.
While Neuheisel said that he is still looking to get Brehaut playing time against Stanford, implying that the freshman will remain the backup, Neuheisel was much more definitive when it came to who holds the top spot at cornerback.
“Sheldon has had the job, and now it is Courtney’s job to come and win it,” Neuheisel said.
Despite being the team’s third option at the beginning of the season, Price has no intention of relinquishing his starting job to Viney.
“Basically, yeah, I feel like the only way I’m going to lose it is if I start playing bad or something,” Price said. “It was exciting. I’ve been to so many UCLA games watching the games and then finally being out there on the field, I was pretty excited. I’m addicted to the playing time.”
Recruiting day
The team’s first of two consecutive days off will not be a day off for the coaching staff. Neuheisel and his six assistants will deploy themselves throughout the nation visiting high school athletes. Neuheisel alone will travel to three different states and four cities all in one day.
“It’ll be a blast,” he said. “It’s what I do.”