PREDS HIT BUMP IN THE ROAD ON THE WAY TO GEORGIA
Courtesy: Orlando Predators
Release: 02/15/2008
A simple bus trip to Georgia. What could possibly go wrong? When the Orlando Predators boarded two charter buses on Thursday afternoon, the last thing they expected was for one of them to break down. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened to the bus quarterback Shane Stafford was riding up I-75.
“We had a walk-thru on the highway,” said Stafford, kidding. “What are you going to do? It breaks down on the highway, just hang out and have fun, have a picnic.”
The entire team finally made it to the Atlanta Falcons practice facility 11 hours after departure from Orlando. Luckily, the Predators have a very good group of guys in this training camp that made things a little easier on everyone.
As for Friday morning’s combined practice with the Georgia Force, it went very well for the Preds in all phases. The offensive line had a very solid workout, giving up just one sack to the Force in the team portion. Stafford threw touchdown passes to wide receivers Roosevelt Kiser and Ron Johnson, though nobody was keeping score.
“We had some good things out there today,” Stafford said. “I saw some things we need to improve on. I think the offensive line did a pretty good job today, and overall we did pretty well.”
On the defensive side of the ball the Preds jack-of-all-trades guy, Stevie Baggs, made a sack in the session. On the Preds defense he plays “Mack” linebacker and defensive end. His sack came from the defensive end position; on the same play the Georgia quarterback nearly threw an interception to “Jack” linebacker Marlon Moye-Moore. As is the case with all of these scrimmages, defensive players are not allowed to take down the quarterback.
Both teams came into the one-on-one sessions very excited about the opportunity to hit someone wearing an opposite jersey. The biggest hit of the day came from Preds fullback Odie Armstrong who met the linebacker and delivered a thunderous block. A block that sent his team into a frenzy, running out to celebrate with their teammate.
The Force have the luxury of having a regulation AFL goal-post with the nets and all in their practice facility. The Preds put that to some good use by letting Kiser, Ahmad Carroll, T.T. Toliver and others try to field kicks from Jay Taylor. Carroll had to make three catches in a row off the net so the team could leave for lunch.
“Georgia is a good team, it will be a good assessment of where we’re at after this scrimmage tomorrow,” said Stafford.
Saturday’s scrimmage is slated to start around 8:30 a.m. at the Atlanta Falcons practice facility in Flowery Branch. The scrimmage is open to the public. (Wrong!)