July 31st, 2014
just a casual game of bowling with the rest of the OL crew courtesy of OT Troy Baker’s twitter page.
July 28th, 2014
McLane Stadium has shown off the new home locker rooms. Every detail is impressive as you can see in this link.
July 25th, 2014
the Baylor team is in summer training mode, pic can be seen here on the BU training twitter page.
The new stadium is about ready, a fly over by drone can be seen on this youtube upload.
Preseason rankings from various sources rank Baylor between #9 and #12, many people are favouring Oklahoma to win the Bug 12 however. The Sooners’ win over Alabama in the bowl game and also the fact that they play Baylor at home weigh heavily in those judgement. It would be easy to see how maintaining an underdog mindset would be of great use to the Bears. At the Big 12 media day the mind games had already begun.
July 18th, 2014
Yesterday the Baylor Football team participated in the ‘Lift for Life’ fundraiser that was used to raise funds for Cerebral Palsy This blog donated $50 towards the cause where players were encouraged to try to hit some PR’s in the gym.
Blake made the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll for the Spring semester. This is the second straight semester that he has done so, Sean made the roll in the Fall.
The boys only just got the internet connected at their new apartment that they are sharing with a couple of others. No word yet on the exact date for first fall practice but its closing in on 12 months since the boys first left for Waco.
July 5th, 2014
Final scores on the weight gain scoreboard.
Blake 317lb, Sean 294lb. About as good as could be hoped for, and at
some point in the last 3 weeks they went over the combined 600lb mark
for the first time. Just goes to show, that despite running 4 days a
week; smart lifting, conditioning and eating can yield some very
pleasing results.
They should be able to play through the season at around 310lb and 290lb respectively.
It
could be 11 months before they see home again, this 5 weeks has been a
rare treat. Only a few lifts they were able to PR this year, but lack of
athleticism is never going to be the concern, especially for Blake. His
300lb snatch is usually a result that linemen are trying to clean.
There just wasn’t enough time to better the 330lb PR from last year.
The
next time we see Blake and Sean will be in 8 weeks when they play the
first game for 2014 at the new McLane Stadium in Waco against SMU.
July 3rd, 2014
this
training block has quickly come to an end, just one more training
session to go on Saturday then back over to Waco next week.
It
wasn’t quite enough time to make as much progress as other years but
here is Blake with a 380lb clean and Sean clean and jerking 310lb today.
These were easy enough and left a little bit in reserve as the focus
really now for football players is on the conditioning aspect of
preparing for fall camp.
June 27th, 2014
There
isn’t many OL who can actually do unassisted pull ups, Blake and Sean
have taken great pride in not just being able to do many unassisted dead
hang pull ups, but also weighed pull ups. Here is Blake with his 2nd
set of 5 of 35lb (16kg) plus his own 312lb of bodyweight.
June 24th, 2014
2 more weeks and the boys will be back at Baylor for the 2nd summer session.
Blake
is now the heaviest that he has been at 312lb and Sean is very close to
his goal weight of 295lb, currently 289lb. Each of them have had
difficulty keeping weight on with the number of classes and walking they
have to do, time in between classes has been limited. With a lessened
number of classes and better transport for the Fall those issues will
largely be overcome.
On the lifting front, with only a few weeks
it was unlikely that either would be able to set any PR’s in the weight
room but Sean will likely PR his front squat before he leaves. The
greater focus of the last 2 weeks will be work capacity and drills on
the whole.
June 12th, 2014
Every year at this time,
the C.O.O.L. Clinic DVD’s arrive in the mail. The Coaches Of Offensive
Line clinic is held in Cincinnati every year in May and thankfully they
record the presentations, 3 days worth!
Its always well worth
checking out how other college programs and NFL teams run their schemes;
terminology, points of emphasis and strategy. These are great resources
and Coach Clements did a presentation in 2013.
June 10th, 2014
Doing a bit of energy system work on the beach.
June 5th, 2014
last
night Blake and Sean were able to check out local club team practice.
For 2014, for the first time there will be tackle football for 11-13
year olds and so it only seemed fitting to bring back a few gifts for
these young players who up to this point knew who Blake and Sean were
but has never met them.
June 2nd, 2014
Today
Blake joined his brother back in the gym after arriving home yesterday.
They will both be in Australia until the 2nd Summer session starts at
Baylor on July 9th; so it gives them about 5 weeks.If Baylor has the
kind of season the program is capable of, it will probably be a whole
year before they’re back again in Sydney so soaking it up while it lasts
is important.
Usually what happens to Blake every year is that he
loses weight during the semester, but this year has been much better
compared to past seasons. 297lb has been the heaviest he’s been after
getting off the 15 hour plane ride from a Spring semester, so it will be
much easier than usual to get back to his ideal playing weight. For
2014 he will likely leave for Waco around 315lb and be ready for the
first game at around 310lb.
Sean has already put on 11lb since returning, his week of sickness during the Spring was never really recovered from.
5
weeks is not longer to reach main lifting goals but the most important
thing will be arriving back on campus as strong as they have ever been.