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Stallions Go To Camp
Jimmy Somelove, stallions.com senior editor
TJ wasted no time this year. He addressed the troops with a fiery passion and challenged them to strive for excellence on offensive and identity on defense. He reminded them of how improved the Killer Whales and Assassins should be and cautioned them to not take their respective 2-2 and 3-1 records against these franchises for granted.
“To return to the playoffs for a third consecutive season is going to require an 8-0 or 7-1 home stand and at least a split of our road games”, TJ announced while handing out the improved offensive playbooks. “That means that we must protect this house and we can start that campaign by sending a message to those %@$@ Assassins on opening day” chided Palmateer. The team erupted with excitement. Palmateer was pleased. He had flipped the switch. The team broke into their groupings and training camp was underway.
Grady Gomez, Edmond Mertz, Donnie Tyler and Man Perales all caught deep passes in morning passing drills. Booker directed the offensive superbly and newly signed backup Miquel Destefano, who looks a lot like Booker in the pocket, pleased the coaching staff with his scrambling ability and execution during the two-minute drill.
Following a break-out sophomore season, Gomez gave fans a preview of what might be ahead this year. He beat Alton McNamee and David Azevedo deep to make a leaping grab of a Booker’s pass in the right-front corner of the end zone. Earlier in the drill, Gomez beat Hodges deep but the pass from Booker was under thrown.
‘Money’ followed his touchdown grab with a brief end-zone celebration; Coach Palmateer blasted him for his attitude and had him run laps. “I know we have stars here”, shouted TJ, but I don’t need stars Grady, I need individuals that believe and invest teamwork here. Are we clear”, he asked Gomez as he pointed to the track surrounding the fields. “Run!”
Last year's other wide receiver, Mertz, sizzled under the warmest sun of the summer. Mertz made a beautiful, over-the-wrong-shoulder touchdown catch of a deep pass from Destefano. He did not celebrate.
Later in the drill, Mertz beat dime back Rondell Harpold to haul in another deep pass from Destefano.
Donnie Tyler sliced through the linebackers to convert several short yardage plays---something that was missing from his game last year.
Key got into the act with a couple of nifty grabs. He caught a ball over the middle while in traffic, then wrestled a Booker deep pass away from cornerback Christian Stovall.
“You'll see the ball go vertically. Steve (Barber) said he'll continue to go for it. Grady Gomez is one of better deep-ball receivers in the league and we're going to continue to utilize that,” Palmateer said.
Barber was the Stallions' new offensive coordinator last season and really added punch to the offense last year. He believes in a strong running game but loves to take defenders deep.
“I think we have some talented wide receivers. We need to throw it and catch it a little better. Everybody knows that,” Palmateer said.
The afternoon defensive drills featured the unveiling of a new double nickel defensive scheme and something that looks like a 3-4 but features some interesting player position assignments. Burke calls it the 5-2 and says that the defense will get a lot of reps in it during the preseason.
Booker’s air show did not continue in the afternoon sessions and the defense looked very fast off the edges with “Big Cat” Napolitano and Jason Minton both turning in sacks of Booker and backup QB Carlton Quinn.
Herzog was impressive in the 7-on-7 drills and he has pretty much locked up the starting nod at SILB. His presence allowed Hassler and Weidner to play a lot more zone defense during the drills and it protected the defense by having two top notch run-stoppers inside when the outside rush was called.
“That kid is going to allow us to become a better unit and having him in camp on-time is huge.”
The Stallions ended day one of camp exhausted but excited. Even Gomez was appreciative of Coach calling him out. “Coach is right. I’m a leader on this football team now and I need to set an example. I want my teammates to know that I’m all about the team and us going all the way this year”, said Gomez.
NC West is perhaps one of the best divisions in the IFL as far a roster talent. Salt Lake will have to stay focused to stay with the pack and with Palmateer running things, that should not be a problem. --JS
Jimmy Somelove, stallions.com senior editor
TJ wasted no time this year. He addressed the troops with a fiery passion and challenged them to strive for excellence on offensive and identity on defense. He reminded them of how improved the Killer Whales and Assassins should be and cautioned them to not take their respective 2-2 and 3-1 records against these franchises for granted.
“To return to the playoffs for a third consecutive season is going to require an 8-0 or 7-1 home stand and at least a split of our road games”, TJ announced while handing out the improved offensive playbooks. “That means that we must protect this house and we can start that campaign by sending a message to those %@$@ Assassins on opening day” chided Palmateer. The team erupted with excitement. Palmateer was pleased. He had flipped the switch. The team broke into their groupings and training camp was underway.
Grady Gomez, Edmond Mertz, Donnie Tyler and Man Perales all caught deep passes in morning passing drills. Booker directed the offensive superbly and newly signed backup Miquel Destefano, who looks a lot like Booker in the pocket, pleased the coaching staff with his scrambling ability and execution during the two-minute drill.
Following a break-out sophomore season, Gomez gave fans a preview of what might be ahead this year. He beat Alton McNamee and David Azevedo deep to make a leaping grab of a Booker’s pass in the right-front corner of the end zone. Earlier in the drill, Gomez beat Hodges deep but the pass from Booker was under thrown.
‘Money’ followed his touchdown grab with a brief end-zone celebration; Coach Palmateer blasted him for his attitude and had him run laps. “I know we have stars here”, shouted TJ, but I don’t need stars Grady, I need individuals that believe and invest teamwork here. Are we clear”, he asked Gomez as he pointed to the track surrounding the fields. “Run!”
Last year's other wide receiver, Mertz, sizzled under the warmest sun of the summer. Mertz made a beautiful, over-the-wrong-shoulder touchdown catch of a deep pass from Destefano. He did not celebrate.
Later in the drill, Mertz beat dime back Rondell Harpold to haul in another deep pass from Destefano.
Donnie Tyler sliced through the linebackers to convert several short yardage plays---something that was missing from his game last year.
Key got into the act with a couple of nifty grabs. He caught a ball over the middle while in traffic, then wrestled a Booker deep pass away from cornerback Christian Stovall.
“You'll see the ball go vertically. Steve (Barber) said he'll continue to go for it. Grady Gomez is one of better deep-ball receivers in the league and we're going to continue to utilize that,” Palmateer said.
Barber was the Stallions' new offensive coordinator last season and really added punch to the offense last year. He believes in a strong running game but loves to take defenders deep.
“I think we have some talented wide receivers. We need to throw it and catch it a little better. Everybody knows that,” Palmateer said.
The afternoon defensive drills featured the unveiling of a new double nickel defensive scheme and something that looks like a 3-4 but features some interesting player position assignments. Burke calls it the 5-2 and says that the defense will get a lot of reps in it during the preseason.
Booker’s air show did not continue in the afternoon sessions and the defense looked very fast off the edges with “Big Cat” Napolitano and Jason Minton both turning in sacks of Booker and backup QB Carlton Quinn.
Herzog was impressive in the 7-on-7 drills and he has pretty much locked up the starting nod at SILB. His presence allowed Hassler and Weidner to play a lot more zone defense during the drills and it protected the defense by having two top notch run-stoppers inside when the outside rush was called.
“That kid is going to allow us to become a better unit and having him in camp on-time is huge.”
The Stallions ended day one of camp exhausted but excited. Even Gomez was appreciative of Coach calling him out. “Coach is right. I’m a leader on this football team now and I need to set an example. I want my teammates to know that I’m all about the team and us going all the way this year”, said Gomez.
NC West is perhaps one of the best divisions in the IFL as far a roster talent. Salt Lake will have to stay focused to stay with the pack and with Palmateer running things, that should not be a problem. --JS
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