Specifically reflecting on this fall, there is a ton that will stick with me.
The most important thing is that our rookies are nasty. Fall 2010 provided us with 4 very special rookies, and during the Fall of 2011 26 ballas graced our practices with their presence. Their attendance has been way above average for a class of rookies, and I'm pretty sure that four years from now they will be stunting through Nationals.
More imminently is the final push of the class of 2012. Four years ago the captains (Denis and Phenom) sent an email to the listserv trying to pump us younguns up and get us excited to come to practice more. In that email they said, "Four years from now you guys are going to be sick." Since day one I feel like we have had high expectations of ourselves. In 2010 there were whispers about how nasty 2012 was going to be. Our rookie class had two starters on the A-team, and an All-Region Freshmen of the year. It didn't take a genius to add two studs and the Roman Legion that was our rookie class and predict a sweet finale. Now here we are about to begin writing our final chapter together and I could not be more excited.
Our D-Line longs are as athletic and deep as ever. Sometimes when I toy around with play time depth charts I convince myself that our D-Line longs could be terrorizing offenses with up to 9 guys getting significant play time. An important note needs to be made on this statement. When Illini Basketball brags about having 7 people come off its' bench, it's usually because they all stink and they don't have a guy to go to, when Bruns brags about his sick D-Line longs it's because they can all go out there and get a D.
The D-Line handlers are almost as hungry as they were in 2010. Realistically, it is impossible to find an individual hungrier to play every single point than Kurt Zoellick. This year we might come close. When we get down we have a pair of seabiscuits at D-Line handler who are going to keep working and keep our sidelines energized by trying to make plays. Colin and Gibby have both put the team on their backs at different points this fall and it makes me very optimistic that they got the meddle to drive some clutch comebacks this spring.
There are two all-Region locks at O-Line handler. As long as those two don't put their tails between their legs when we are in the red zone, magical things could happen.
Our O-Line long unit is suffering the most from graduations. This definitely hurt and will continue to be tough to bounce back from, but we have enough motivated individuals to get better. Right now we are much worse throwers and worse at getting open, but something tells me that our defense on turns will be fine. There is tons of work to be done here, and four weeks at home is usually enough time for people to search their pain cave for their spirit animal, realize it isn't there, and then step back out into the light and have an epiphany.
Going forward from here, a few things are evident. First, our conditioning is so far from where it needs to be.
Second, our rate of injuries needs to decrease and under no circumstances should it increase. Injuries are always stupid, and injuries in the early part of the season absolutely kill us. Winter break needs to be used to keep lifting and keep stretching.
Lastly everyone needs to keep in mind that we have accomplished absolutely nothing yet. There are a handful of people that walk around with some unearned swag. We have not done anything on the ultimate field to earn that swag, and why we are wearing it so proudly escapes me. After break we have 3 months of work before we even have a chance of earning that swag. Always remember that not only teams but individuals, are only defined by Regionals and Nationals.
Bruns
