Sunday, January 9, 2011

The New Beginning

So its over, my college career as a football player for the Louisiana State Fighting Tigers is over...and its hard to put into words how I feel right now. I mean, it seems like just yesterday I was in highschool planning on going to LSU and proving everyone wrong, because there were so many people that said that I would never play here. And I've done just that because I've been starting here for 3years. I would be lying if I told you that im not gonna miss it. From hanging with my frat brothers, to almost being late to class, to listening to kid cudi with the rest of the o line, to just hangin out with my friends in my spare time...im gonna miss it all. As this chapter of my life ends I can honestly say that id do it all again because all of the people I've met and the places I've been are what made me the man that i so proudly am. One of my close friends told me that im gonna miss it, and he is right because it just ended yesterday and im already feeling nestalgic. I still remember the tears in my mother's eyes when I told her that I decided to come to LSU. I remember being a scared little kid that graduated early to get a head start on my college career. I remember the dissapointment of having to start all over as a freshman again when I got to college and fighting my way into the 2 deep. I remember the challenge of switching from deffensive tackle to offensive tackle. I remember the challange of switching from right tackle to left tackle. I remember switching from the quiet guy to the vocal team captian. I guess you could say I've gone through my fare share of change...but it has all been leading up to this...

Im currently at the airport waiting to board the plane that's gonna open the next chapter that starts today, and that next chapter is my professional career. Im on my way to a training facility to begin training for the East vs. West shrine game and then the combine, and then my pro day. So im gonna be pretty busy for a while lol but it'll all be worth it to hear my name called on draft day...but that's a long way away from today and im gonna do all that I can to get better as I wait for those days to come...
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Friday, January 7, 2011

Gameday

So its my last game as an LSU tiger and while I am unable to describe the feeling I will say that im gonna miss it here. It was truely the best of times as well as the worst of times. But honestly I feel like that sums up most college experiences, I mean everybody has their highs and their lows that shape them into the man/woman that they are today. And sure playing football in college will alter my experience from the average student's somewhat but that doesn't mean that they are completely different experiences. Moving on, like I said before, it is indeed gameday and my teamates and I plan on doing everything they can to run onto that feild and win. What's already understood doesn't need to be explained...Peace
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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Real People

So im still at this luncheon and still thinking about random things and the thought of real people popped up in my head. With today's world of gangsta rap bein popular and more and more people goin to jail, killin eachother, gettin arrested, etc. A lot of people are talkin about how "real" they are but I feel like we've lost/forgotten the real meaning of what it means to be a "real person". Being real isn't gang affiliated, its about being a genuine person. Real people don't kill and steal they help and are there for support. Being real isn't supposed to be affiliated with danger and death....its just about not being fake.
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Walk Ons

So this random thought popped up in my head as i was sittin here at the Cotton Bowl Luncheon. There are only 85 scholarship players on the team, but we are about 130 players deep, and that is because the players that are here and not a part of that 85 man roster are walk ons, which means that they aren't on scholarship. But just because they're not on scholarship doesn't mean that they're not a part of the team. A lot of people feel a lot of different ways about walk ons. Some people treat them like they're less than human just because they're not on scholarship. Some people treat them like regular people. And some people are just indifferent. Persoanlly I feel like they're on of the most important parts of the team. They help us get better everyday, fill in when people are hurt, boost the team's overall GPA (more than you know lol), and just do so much in general for the program. Some of my best friends are walk ons because they are the most down to earth people on the team. They like to hang out, relax, and have a good time instead of talk aabout how great they are/were in highschool and I appreciate that because im the same way. Not every team treats their walk ons the same but they should all treat them with respect and no different than they do the scholarship players because the team needs them just as much as they need their scholarship atheletes. So that's just my random 2 minutes.
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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Bomb Squad

MSo im sittin here at my birthday dinner with my fellow o lineman and some other teamates and we were talkin about playin offensive line and how thankless of a job it is. As you guys know, we caught a lot of heat as a unit last year. People were always talking about how bad we were at run and pass blocking and how we were just bad as a line in general. We had a good summer and worked really hard in the off season and im so happy and proud of the guys as a unit. These guys have worked really hard and improved so much and they get no credit for it at all. So I just wanna take this moment to shout out the LSU bomb squad on all of the improvement as well as congratukate them on taking a running back from 5th string to all SEC, and that's a true story the chart was charles, keiland, murphy, holliday, and then ridley. So I just wanna hout out the guys and let em know that somebody notices what they've done. Thanks guys
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Cotton Bowl Day 1 (First Day Out)

Birthday

So today, sometime around 5 in the morning i think, i turned 22. Its been a regular day,nothing special to report but i am happy that ive been able to see another day on the earth. So far ive been to a press interview, practiced and went to a football signing party. things have been goin pretty smoothly so far, the only thing that i have planned for tonight is to go to dinner with some of my closest friends on the team (The o-line, Joey Crappel, T.C. McCartney, Derek Helton, etc) and maybe a trip to best buy. Im not a big party guy so i dont need to go buy out the bar at somebody's club lol, i mean after all i am an offensive lineman, those types of things are for the skill position guys. Id also like to take this moment to thank everyone that wished me a happy birthday and also apologize ffor not having the video uploads....something is wrong with the camera, but im working hard to fix it. The only thing that i would change about this day is that i would spend it with my family, i know on days like today it gets hard on them having me so far away from home, but i know that they understand that its for a bigger purpose. But besides that, today has been perfrect and i have no complaints. Not to mention that im happy that we get Ridley back for the bowl game, you guys dont understand what a boost that was, morally, for the offense. And id like to commend Ridley for the way that he handled the situation, he just smiled and kept coming to practice and working hard and you gotta respect a guy like that because he was under a lot of pressure and still maintained his composure for the team.

In other news the Cotton Bowl has been the greatest bowl experience that ive had since ive been in college. I mean everything from the big events to the smallest details have been coordinated down to the T and i really appreciate it. These people make us feel like an accomplished team and are doing everything that they can to make this experience enjoyable. today the team visited children in the hospital, myself and a couple of my teammates had a press conference, but from what ive heard it was a very rewarding experience. Doing things like hospital visits and other forms of community service are very improtant to me because you never realize how good youve got it until you meet someone in a worse situation and imagine what its like to walk in their shoes, not to menation its always good to give back to the community. My parents instilled in me that its always important to give back and now that im older and more mature i understand why and when im married and have kids i plan to teach them the same thing. After the hospital visit we went to practice and after practice we ahd a pizza party, andf now we have freetime for the rest of the night. Things are goin really good in practice and we're definitley improving nd getting better. Someone asked me in the press conference today how i would feel i responded by telling them that we came here to win the game and thats what we are going to do everything that we can to do...Speaking of winning, Im hoping that Arkansas can continue the trend of SEC dominance in bowl games tonight...theres no football like SEC football.

Alright, well im bout to head to Best Buy. Peace

Monday, January 3, 2011

Day 2 (Late Registration) cont...

Arcade. Games, food, etc. It reminds me of a pplace that used to be in Michigan called Gamestop. But that was pretty fun. We played the games, had a couple bowling tournaments (mitch joseph won) and played lastertag (which im a beast in thanks to Call Of Duty). But overall it was a fun night.

After the event, we had the rest of the night to ourselves. Most pepople went out but I stayed in the player's lounge and updated my iPad. Im tryin to save money because we're goin to the mall today...but anyway...I guess that's all for now. Peace.
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Day 2 (Late Registration)

Aight so I know this is kinda late, but better late than never. The reason it took me so long is my video upload attempt/debacle last night. I put together all of the clips from the first day on the bowl site and put a song on it (christian Dior Denim Flow-Kanye West) and youtube says the song might violate some sort of copyright restriction and muted the whole video altogether. I am currently workin on uploading a music-less video today as well as the clips and things from yesterday so please bear with me.

With that being said, our first practice back was yesterday and it went suprisingly smooth. Ussually when u take a couple days off you're kind of rusty and slow but the practice suprisingly quick and percise. Things went smoothly and the coaches were happy about it and when the coaches are happy then the team is happy because that means that we don't have to run after practice.

After we left the Cowboy's stadium, we headed to this place called "The Main Event". Its basically a big time party center with bowling alleys, lasertag,
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Overused Words

Sometimes when there's nothing else to do, u just hang out. Well my teamate (Jarret Joseph follow him on twitter @jayjoe15) and I were hangin out talking and we brought up the language of our generation and how its changed over the years. Ths eventually led us to the use of certain words that have been overused and therfore watered down. Some of these words include: hate, love, dominate, epic, and swear. Ceartian words in today's culture have lost there meaning and importance and are just as common as words like "the" and "to"...not a profound statement, just a random thou
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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Day 1 (Reflection)

So before i start i just want to take the opportunity to give thanks to God for the position that he has put me in and the fortune that he has given me to be able to play in this bowl game as well as for giving me the strength to just make it through everyday life because everyone knows that life gets hard sometimes. With that being said, im gonna try to get across some viewpoints in as few words as possible so that my blog doesn't get too wordy...

Let me start off by saying that so far, this has been the best bowl experience that ive had (national championship included). I predict that this bowl will be a BCS bowl in the next 5 years. It gets better and better every year and ike i said its the best experience that ive had so far. The hotel that we are staying in is amazing! The hospitality suite that the hotel has set up for us is amazing. Our bowl gifts (iPads, and DreBeats) are amazing. Everything here is wonderful and no one on the team has a single complaint to make about anything. I can tell that this bowl will be a lot of fun this year. The bowl event for tonight took place in The Dallas Cowboy's stadium and that stadium is breathtaking. I was in shock from the moment i stepped in the building until the moment i left. Josh (the left gaurd) calls it the death star because its so big lol. While we were walking around the stadium, my coach (Studrawa) asked my how many games i would play in the stadium and i responded "as many as God will let me". that question that he asked really gave me something to think about. Ive been so caught up with this game and preparing for it and i sometimes lose sight of the fact that this will be my last college game and their is life after college football. Fortunately for me, i will have an opportunity to join someone's NFL organization and continue football at the next level. I know it wont be easy and will take a lot of work, but i feel that i'll be able to make it happen, given the opportunity. But thats enough about me, back to the team...Texas A&M is a very good team with a lot of very good players and we are gonna need to continue to improve if we want to win this game. I really have a good feeling about this game and the preparation progress that we have made so far and with that being said I think that we'll be alright when the time comes, after all Proper preparation prevents poor performance...

But theres nothing major to talk about today, because it was pretty uneventful. We go back to practice tomorrow to continue preparing for the game and then im sure we'll have some type of bowl function that evening and im definitely looking forward to it. im kinda tired tonight so im bout to sign off and call it a night after i load a couple more apps onto the ipad. Goodnight America. Peace

Cowboy Stadium

Maybe ill be fortunate enough to play in a stadium like this one day.
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1st blog

So this is my first blog ever and its from my motorola droid 2 cell phone (the advances in today's technology are amazing!). Im about to walk into a meeting but throughout this week I will be recording my bowl experience with this website as well as my handy dandy flipvideo camera. Im currently chillin in the meeting room with the team waiting for a meeting to start. So im guessing this is like some kind of internet journal, or at least that's what im gonna use it for...I mean afterall it is my last LSU bowl game... Whelp coach miles just walked in which means the meeting will be starting soon, so ill type more later...
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