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.
