Good Start

All reports from the preliminary two days of training camp are filled with details about increased enthusiasm and excitement among the players and the coaches.

Many of the players look much bigger to the naked eye but we won’t have updated weights probably for a day or two more at the earliest.

There are also some unlucky injuries at a few key positions, but no reason to hit any panic buttons on that score yet.

Perhaps most important of all was Head Coach Al Bagnoli’s inspiring address to the players and their parents where he laid out his vision and his coaching philosophy.

This truly feels like the start of something big.

One small update: Nicholas Annabi is back with the team and now wearing #13, and now Brett Nottingham is back off the roster. 

RECRUITING

Now that the current Lions are all present and accounted for and starting camp, I’m a bit wary of paying too much attention going forward to the newly committed recruits. But recruiting news is such a great way to increase attention for our program that I think it’s still worth it. Of course as the season and real games begin, less attention will be paid to the future in favor of a fair amount of info on the present.

So that said, here are two interesting bullet point notes from future Lion and potential future Lion world:

-RB commit Tanner Thomas from Farragut HS in Knoxville had a MONSTER game to start his senior season Friday night. He scored four TD’s in Farragut's 49-6 win.  

-This is an odd one, even for me, but a potential future Lion who looks really good on film to many of us is going to do make a bit of an event out of his commitment decision. Sometime tomorrow, we’re told LB Jake Schwarzer will announce where he intends to play in college next year. He’s publicly narrowed down his four choices to San Jose State, Navy, San Diego and Columbia. 

I hate falling prey to something like this, but I have to admit I’ll be really interested in learning his choice tomorrow when the time comes. Call me a sucker.