Up until training camp started last week, we were just down here working out, running and lifting five days a week. That was pretty much mandatory for all the rookies. We did that up until July 15th. I was living at Lake Lanier Resort, which is probably about ten minutes from the facility at Flowery Branch. We’ve been working out at Flowery Branch.

The workouts were about being in shape and getting your body ready for training camp. Because a lot of times when you go home, you don’t necessarily prepare yourself the way that you need to. I think they are just trying to show us rookies the ropes, and next year it's not necessarily mandatory for the veterans, so at least we’ll know what’s expected and the types of workouts that are usually required to get ready for training camp. All the veterans that were there participated in the morning workouts, while all the rookies worked out in the evening.

Training camp started July 25th. For those ten days [between July 15th and July 25th] I went back to Blacksburg for a couple of days to visit my girlfriend and work out, since I knew I needed to work out that week. For the rest of the week I went back home to Williamsburg and spent time with my family.

It seemed like the guys [VT football team] were pretty excited. They were in the middle of their summer workouts. I actually went and ran 110s with them one day. But everybody seemed like they were pretty happy with what’s going on, and pretty excited about everything.

They did seem focused. It was just like last year when we were working out, and you could just feel it was different and that everybody knew what it was going to take to get things done. Now that we’ve been there once in the ACC, everybody realizes that it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

From the short amount of time I was there in Blacksburg, it was tough to tell who was stepping up as leaders. But to me it’s always the seniors. I feel like the senior leadership is what carries the program. In previous years, the seniors always stepped it up and took control.

We have one-a-days and we have two-a-days, and we’ve been switching off. That’s how things have been going. The days are long, that’s the thing. If you aren’t in meetings, you’re in practice, and if you aren’t in practice, you’re in meetings. I’d say that’s probably the biggest difference. In college, you’d get to go home and relax in the midday.

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Waking up early in the morning for breakfast, then practicing, having meetings, then back out to practice, then having more meetings. So by the time you get home from the meetings, it’s probably about 10 o’clock at night. You’ll have a little snack, and that’s about it.

We alternated back and forth between one-a-day and two-a-days. We’d have a one-a-day, and then we’d follow that up with a two-a-day. I’ve been going to pretty much all the special teams meetings. We have a special teams meeting before offense and defense meetings. So I’ve been to kickoff coverage meetings, kickoff return meetings, everything but field goal kicking. I’m putting in the extra time. I feel like the guys in college who have to be on special teams and go to extra meetings -- I never had to deal with that. Now I’m in meetings for like three hours straight.

Usually in a meeting we watch the whole practice, and practices are about two and a half hours or three hours long. So we watch film, we watch practice and what’s been going on in previous practices, then we install what we’re going to do for the next practice. It’s always the installation, and it’s always watching film from the previous practice. They record the whole practice, and every drill, 7 on 7 and things like that. You’re watching everybody’s reps, so you’re talking about the first string, second string and third string.

It’s a good teaching tool. You get to watch what you do. It gets long, but you get used to it.

I am getting more comfortable with the playbook. After it’s in your head over and over every day, you get a lot of mental reps and you tend to catch on, how you see things, how you read things. I think the most difficult thing is just learning the base core of the offense. It’s the same basic plays, and you take those basic plays and you run them out of different formations. Once you get the nucleus of the offense, it’s basically just running the same plays out of different formations and different shifts and things like that. I’ve started to get the base, the nucleus of the offense down.

I get reps in one-on-ones and more individual drills than team. Most of the time in team drills, when it's offense and defense running together, I don't get any reps, until yesterday. I got two reps yesterday, and I got four total reps so far in team drills. It was exciting just to get the feel again, because when you’re out of it and just watching it’s not the same. It’s just different. To get in there and actually get under center again in the heat of battle was fun.

In seven-on-seven I took two reps, and in team [11-on-11] I took two reps. I executed well. I completed both my balls in seven-on-seven, and today in team drills we were on the goal line and I threw two touchdown passes. I threw one to Fred McCrary, a fullback, and I threw one to Michael Jenkins from Ohio State.

I feel like right now special teams is going to be my tool to make the team. But it’s still early, and we’ve still got preseason games to go. But I think that would definitely be a plus, to get out there and do well on special teams. That may be my ticket, or it may not. You don’t really know, but it’s another opportunity to get on the field.

I think I’ve been doing pretty good. It’s all new to me. I’ve never really played special teams. Even though I come from Beamer Ball, I wasn’t a part of those special teams. So it’s all new to me. But I feel like I’m adjusting, and I’m learning more and more every day. That’s something where I really have to focus on what’s going on. I’ve got to catch up on all those years where I haven’t been on special teams.

They’ve told me there’s a chance I may play (laughs), but I know that’s broad. But they are always telling me that if I get in, there are no excuses for me not to be ready. So I don’t know for sure.

Michael’s not going to play a lot. He doesn’t really play in the preseason for fear of injury, so he is going to be limited. That’s pretty much a proven fact going into the game. It’s just a matter of how much time [Matt] Schaub gets and how much time [Ty] Detmer gets.

I’m excited about going to Tokyo. I’m not excited about the 13 hour trip. This will be my first time going overseas. So I’m real excited about that, and it will be a different experience. We’re going to have some time off, so I’m probably going to go out and see the city. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back, so while I’m over there I definitely want to get around and see some things.

Sometimes the waiting gets a little bit discouraging, but at the same time, I’ve been in this position before when I came into Tech as a freshman. You’ve got to learn the ropes. I’ve been in the position before where you’ve just got to learn and sit back and watch. I do realize that you have to sit back and be patient.