Mansfield Lake Ridge QB and Tech commit Jett Duffey, who's out in Oregon for the Elite 11 and the Opening this week, called me this morning to give me an update about what he's thought so far through the first two days, what he expects today. Their schedule is extremely hectic - so thanks so much to Jett - and I'll be catching up with him as often as I can throughout the competition.
The QB touched on what went on Sunday first and foremost, which included the sort of military "Hell Week" they go through for the first 24 hours of the camp.
"Well we had the first part where you get all the gear, and you're getting acclimated, and then bam, here comes all the training, the workouts, and everything like that, which are the challenges mentally and also physically, which is extremely hard. But, it was great to do, and you learn a lot about yourself, and we did a lot of finding out about who our mind works and things like that."
"It was tough, it was challenging , and it brought everybody closer together to be honest. When you're working really hard with someone, you develop a respect for them and a liking for them, and it was important because the guys that we were on teams with are the guys we're going to be on teams with come seven-on-seven. It was really great, because they force you to help guys you're going to be competing against."
Yesterday focused much more on stuff on the field, including doing a whole lot of classroom and on-field work with the Elite 11 playbook, which each player has been learning over the last month or two.
"The second day, it was also great. We did some instillation type stuff, got to go with our offensive coordinators and work through plays, see everything visually, going in on a whiteboard for a couple of hours while you're halfway falling asleep, and we got to do some different things like that. The second day was a pretty good day, going out there on the field, finally being able to throw, competing against everybody to see where everybody is at. It was really, really good. I loved it."
They also got to do a little bit of yoga. Trent Dilfer and the rest of the coaches try to throw the quarterbacks some curveballs during the week, and this was one of them on Monday.
"That was an awesome experience. Yoga is really hard, and sometimes it would be easy, but it was super peaceful doing stretches and stuff like that," he said. "About five minutes into it, I was sweating and my legs were shaking."
As for on the field, Duffey felt like he had a fairly good day to start things off throwing the ball around.
"I felt like I did really well throwing, was on target with a lot of throws. We didn't have the top notch receivers and different things like that. For the most part, I felt like I did really well. I could've done better."
Today, the QBs will have one more practice session that's purely the Elite 11 before adding in the rest of the Opening athletes, beginning the combine and 7-on-7 portions of the competition. Duffey was excited this morning and ready to go out and sling it for the next few hours.
"Today, I expect to go out there and compete, show that I'm one of the top guys, and whenever the list comes out, hopefully I'm at the top of the list."
As I said, I'll be keeping in touch with Jett as often as I can over the next few days. Also, if you were wondering what type of kid he is, he called me at 7:00 this morning, meaning he called me at 5:00 out in Oregon.
The QB touched on what went on Sunday first and foremost, which included the sort of military "Hell Week" they go through for the first 24 hours of the camp.
"Well we had the first part where you get all the gear, and you're getting acclimated, and then bam, here comes all the training, the workouts, and everything like that, which are the challenges mentally and also physically, which is extremely hard. But, it was great to do, and you learn a lot about yourself, and we did a lot of finding out about who our mind works and things like that."
"It was tough, it was challenging , and it brought everybody closer together to be honest. When you're working really hard with someone, you develop a respect for them and a liking for them, and it was important because the guys that we were on teams with are the guys we're going to be on teams with come seven-on-seven. It was really great, because they force you to help guys you're going to be competing against."
Yesterday focused much more on stuff on the field, including doing a whole lot of classroom and on-field work with the Elite 11 playbook, which each player has been learning over the last month or two.
"The second day, it was also great. We did some instillation type stuff, got to go with our offensive coordinators and work through plays, see everything visually, going in on a whiteboard for a couple of hours while you're halfway falling asleep, and we got to do some different things like that. The second day was a pretty good day, going out there on the field, finally being able to throw, competing against everybody to see where everybody is at. It was really, really good. I loved it."
They also got to do a little bit of yoga. Trent Dilfer and the rest of the coaches try to throw the quarterbacks some curveballs during the week, and this was one of them on Monday.
"That was an awesome experience. Yoga is really hard, and sometimes it would be easy, but it was super peaceful doing stretches and stuff like that," he said. "About five minutes into it, I was sweating and my legs were shaking."
As for on the field, Duffey felt like he had a fairly good day to start things off throwing the ball around.
"I felt like I did really well throwing, was on target with a lot of throws. We didn't have the top notch receivers and different things like that. For the most part, I felt like I did really well. I could've done better."
Today, the QBs will have one more practice session that's purely the Elite 11 before adding in the rest of the Opening athletes, beginning the combine and 7-on-7 portions of the competition. Duffey was excited this morning and ready to go out and sling it for the next few hours.
"Today, I expect to go out there and compete, show that I'm one of the top guys, and whenever the list comes out, hopefully I'm at the top of the list."
As I said, I'll be keeping in touch with Jett as often as I can over the next few days. Also, if you were wondering what type of kid he is, he called me at 7:00 this morning, meaning he called me at 5:00 out in Oregon.
