August 3, 2012

Bryan Cisler

Reinstalling Formations

For the players who participated during spring drills, the first few days of fall camp has been mostly a review of the formations they installed earlier in the year, but the pace has sped up.

On Thursday the offense installed a one back set formation with a tight end, today they mostly worked with four wide receiver sets, and over the weekend they will work on installing the Jayhawk formation(where the wide receiver or running back takes the place of the quarterback) and also sets that contain two tight ends. The defense will install their schemes based on what they would run against that day's specific offense.

"The installations though are the same as the spring so we have a good understanding of what's going in," Gavin Howard said.

Camp Schedule

Players are already getting into the rhythm and flow of the training camp schedule for the first week. Players wake up at 7:00 am either by horn or somebody banging on their door and head down to breakfast. They then head to meetings which last for two to three hours where they watch film from the previous night and install new plays. After that they break for lunch and get two hours off. When they return they head back into meetings and continue to work on installing new plays for the day. Practice is at 2:00pm and afterwards they head to dinner and then it's meetings until 9:30pm. Curfew is at 11:00pm.

Aslam Sterling

Offensive tackle Aslam Sterling showed up on campus yesterday after completing his final junior college class the day before. Sterling was held out of drills until he could take his physical. Offensive line coach Tim Grunhard said they are going to slowly work him into the mix.

"He's got to catch up with these guys mentally and physically because these guys have been working hard all summer," Grunhard said.

Zone Blocking

During the spring practices, we talked more extensively here about how the offensive lines in the past under Charlie Weis have used more zone blocking schemes than what Turner Gill used in the previous two seasons. Now that the players have a full spring under their belts and have a better understanding of the playbook, it appears that will be the case this season. For players like more athletic offensive lineman like Trevor Marrongelli, they welcome the change in styles.

"I love it because we get to run around and play in space and they wanted us to lose a little weight just so we can be quicker off the ball which I think has helped and really showed up when we watched film yesterday," Marrongelli said.

Tim Grunhard Q&A

Grunhard on freshmen Brian Beckmann and Sean Connolly?

They are freshmen so they don't know what they don't know yet. We are excited about having both of them in the program and I don't make the decision whether they play this year or not that's up to Coach Weis but both of them have come in with the idea that they want to work as hard as they possibly can to help this team win this year. Now whether that happens or not is up to them and it is up to coach.

Grunhard on who he thinks will be the future leaders on the offensive line after this year?

I think Luke Luhrsen has an opportunity to be one of those guys as well as Damon Martin. I think as a young offensive linemen and I have been there, but it's kind of like your kids you are meant to be seen and not heard. They are trying to sit back and learn and absorb all the information and learn from the older guys. These fifth year seniors have been through a lot here. They are just going about their business and doing what they are supposed to do. They are working hard and pushing themselves, and when these seniors leave then we will see who those guys are who step up as leaders.

Grunhard on Aslam Sterling's potential?

We watched him on film and he comes off with some power. He's also got good feet for a big guy so I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do. I can't answer exactly what he is going to be good or bad at but that's a good place to start with a guy like that size. You can't teach 360 pounds or with good feet or a guy who is 6-foot-5.

Grunhard on recruiting in Kansas City?

It's been tough. Recruiting is a lot tougher than I thought it would be. It's tough when there is a lot of buzz with some other programs around but we are excited about having some of the guys we have coming. We are going to keep sawing wood and selling this great university and this great family we have here at KU. We are going to sell Coach Weis and his program and we are going to sell our coaches and our players. We are going to sell our academics and how we went from a 2.3 to a 3.0 GPA. Only one percent of the guys who graduate from college go on to play in the NFL, but 99 percent of them have to go out and get a job because their parents don't want them back. They have to understand at the University of Kansas that that's important. They have to know that they will have an opportunity to get a great education and look at how many great companies are around this place and the great alumni. That's what we try to sell.