By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
Sure, there were a few extra drills he would have liked for his players to have done over the summer.
With the squad's first official practice set for Monday, T.R. Miller Tigers football coach Jamie Riggs felt his team did the things it needed to do during the offseason conditioning program.
"I felt we had a good summer. All our players made all the scheduled workouts so that part is always good to see. We were pretty consistent with about 54 sophomores, juniors and seniors," Riggs said.
The Tigers finished up their summer workouts last week with an intrasquad team passing camp.
"We probably threw the ball a little bit more this summer than in the past and I think we're a little ahead of where we usually are in that area," Riggs said. " A lot of teams participate in a lot of seven-on-seven drills during the summer to help their passing game. That is usually something we don't do a lot of simply because that's not our usual offense."
Riggs also said his squad probably did more defensive work this summer than in the past.
"Probably the thing we did the most in that area this summer was agility drills," Riggs said.
After graduation of 18 seniors last year, leadership by this year's upperclassmen will be a key to the team's success. Riggs said those players stepped into that role this summer.
"I was pretty pleased with the work our seniors did this summer. They did a pretty good job of stepping into the leadership role. Most of them made pretty good strides in the weightroom," Riggs said. "These seniors should be pretty hungry to play. Most of them have been waiting for three years for a chance to play, especially at the linemen and defensive back positions. Our backfield will also have a lot of new faces. I felt we had some kids step up in those roles this summer, but you never know what you really have until you get into practice."
While many programs begin workouts with two-a-day and some even three-a-day practice sessions, Riggs will limit his squad to one practice per day, for now.
"I would rather have us have one longer, good practice than two shorter average practices," Riggs said.
T.R. Miller will have morning practices from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday and Tuesday before it shifts to afternoon practice Wednesday.
"It will be a little cooler in the morning so we'll start out there the first couple of days. Then we'll shift to the afternnon. That's when we'll be going once school starts anyway," Riggs said.
T.R. Miller will start its season August 27 at Escambia County in a non-region game.