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(04/09/13 10:46pm)
Jamil Douglas has been eating his Wheaties.
The redshirt junior offensive lineman is listed on the ASU roster as 6 feet, 4 inches and 303 pounds. He looks a lot bigger than that when standing next to him.
Douglas said there are two main reasons for his increase in size. He gave credit to director of strength and conditioning, Shawn Griswold.
And Douglas is just eating better. His most important new habit, eating breakfast every day, is something that he didn't do in the past.
Douglas’s size increase comes at the right time. During spring practices, he has switched positions from left guard to right tackle.
Coming into ASU, he always thought about playing the tackle position.
“Of course everyone likes the left tackle spot, because that’s the blind side of the quarterback,” Douglas said. “I’ve always liked tackle. I liked guard also, but I don’t have a problem playing tackle.”
Coaches suggested the move to Douglas during the off-season.
He knew if he was going to play this new position he had to get stronger and larger in the off-season.
More importantly, he needed to improve his skills to block the end.
“Just thinking about playing right tackle, it made me have to work harder just, so I know I’m able to be quicker on the field,” Douglas said.
It is interesting Douglas wants to work on his quickness. Douglas is especially known around the team for having light feet.
“We like his athleticism, and he’s gotten better and better,” coach Todd Graham said. “It is so important in this league to be really solid at that tackle position, because you are going to play against some great defensive ends.”
Last season, Douglas showed he is the most athletic offensive lineman on the team. For a player his size, he can make moves that don’t seem possible.
This makes the transition from guard to tackle a little bit easier. At the tackle position, Douglas will face defensive ends that might weigh less than the defensive tackles on the inside but will be twice as fast.
Douglas said his skills give him confidence on the edge.
“Just me knowing that I’m athletic and that I hang with guys that are speed rushers like Carl Bradford,” Douglas said. “It just helps me mentally know that I’m able to do those type of things.”
About midway through each practice, the offensive and defensive linemen meet up and compete in a one-on-one pass rush drill. When they match up, Douglas and redshirt junior linebacker Carl Bradford always seem to find each other.
Douglas and Bradford are actually roommates. Even though they are good friends off of the field, it is all business in the drill.
Bradford represents a difficult challenge for any offensive tackle, because he is so explosive off the ball. When the two face off, it is one the best displays of speed during the practice.
Douglas’s athleticism helps him keep up with Bradford. But Bradford said Douglas’s strength has helped him transition to tackle as well.
“He’s a strong man,” Bradford said. “He gives you one punch, and you’ll fly across the formation. But he is very athletic for a tackle.”
The tackle position comes with the responsibility of holding down the edge and blocking athletic ends like Bradford. It also comes with a different responsibility.
The tackle has to be consistent throughout the season. The quarterbacks and running backs put a lot of trust in him to protect them.
Douglas is in his fourth year at ASU and is a returning starter. He said he is ready for the responsibility.
“I’m replacing somebody, somebody that played last year,” Douglas said. “So when we step on the field, I have to be in that position and know that I can play that position, because the quarterbacks and the running backs are depending on me to make those blocks.”
Helping Douglas make the transition is returning starting left tackle redshirt senior Evan Finkenberg. Finkenberg has been a starter for three seasons and is the leader of the unit.
Douglas has been working extra with Finkenberg after practice to improve his tackle technique.
It is still early in the spring, and the starting offensive line positions are still fluid. So far, Finkenberg is impressed with what he has seen from Douglas and wouldn't be surprised if he starts at tackle in the fall.
“It’s a lot of pressure to move positions each year,” Finkenberg said. “But he has really stepped up to the plate so far and he’s doing a great job so far, so I think he is going to do a good job in the season.” Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu or follow on Twitter at @AZSportsHUB
(04/09/13 10:24pm)
OK, Rick Pitino, what have you done this week? Obviously, your team, the Louisville Cardinals, won the NCAA national championship Monday night. This made you the only coach to win two titles at two schools. People of the Commonwealth of Kentucky have reminded me of that a million times now. OK, that's kind of a big deal. But it's not like one of their players, sophomore guard Kevin Ware, could not finish the tournament after suffering one of the most gruesome injuries the sports world has seen. Rallying a team after such heartbreak to win a championship shows some pretty good coaching.
You got me again, Rick.
All right Pitino, a coach only becomes a legend in the sport of basketball if he is voted in to something called the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Ever been to Springfield, Mass., Rick?
Come on, man; you're killing me.
OK, OK, if you pull this off then you are having the ultimate week: Did you have a horse run in the Santa Anita Derby last weekend, win the race and earn a berth in the Kentucky Derby?
Really?
OK, Rick Pitino, you need to stop it. You are making us all look bad. Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu or follow on twitter @AZSportsHUB
(04/06/13 1:09am)
Graham satisfied with the level intensity early on in spring practice.
(04/03/13 1:10am)
Steffon Martin has a new role.
(04/03/13 12:00am)
One of the worst feelings is when you think of something awesome and clever to say to someone, right after they leave the room.
That happened to me last week. I was giving a presentation in front of the class. I was nervous. My throat was dry, and my voice was cracking like I was a 14-year-old boy who just found out that he likes girls.
And someone starts talking rudely and laughing out loud in the back of the classroom, and keeps on doing it.
As you might have guessed, my presentation went horribly. I walked back to my desk, head down, embarrassed and extremely angry. As I walked out the classroom, it hit me. I should have walked right up to my interrupter and impolitely suggested that when someone else is giving a presentation in the middle of your class, maybe you should try to shut up.
That would have been awesome. Instead, I am doing something way more passive-aggressive: Writing a column about it while in my cave at the The State Press newsroom.
We need to have a conversation about classroom etiquette. We need to have the discussion, student to student. We are all on the same team here.
I do not care about the awesome party that you went to the last weekend at I Feela Thigh and all the awesome shots you did, and that awesome guy you met wearing that awesome polo.
I’m sure it was awesome. But it will just as cool to tell your friend after my presentation is over.
Here is a message to all students listening to one of their peers give a presentation: Shut up and listen. That’s all.
I do not care if you find my presentation boring. I do, too. Do you think I really care about the oil business in the old west?
I don’t, but I do care that you are breaking my focus.
For those of you who don't listen to my presentation but proceed to ask complicated open-ended questions after the presentation: You are not a great thinker just because you have a beard, wear clothes that cost 37 cents at Buffalo Exchange and pause a lot when you speak.
In the future, you just like to hear the sound of your own voice, do not use the question time after my presentation to hear it.
Everybody needs to lighten up. We all want to do the same thing. We just want to get through this class with a decent grade so it can fill our requirements. We are not going to solve world peace because of something you said in a 300-level English class.
And if you think you are, you may be taking yourself a little too seriously.Reach the columnist at ehubbard@asu.edu or follow him at @AZsportsHub
(03/27/13 12:27am)
There are some new faces around the ASU football spring practices.
(03/25/13 11:01pm)
I got a fever, and the only prescription is more Florida Gulf Coast.
The FGCU Eagles were the first No. 15 seed in history to advance to the Sweet Sixteen when they defeated the No. 7 seeded San Diego State last weekend.
What was even more impressive was when they knocked off No. 2 Georgetown two days prior.
Coming from someone who had the Hoyas all the way to Atlanta in the Final Four, I was a little upset when FGCU upset the Georgetown fans, who were also pretty upset.
But this not just a one-night upset. The Eagles wanted to make this a regular thing and now have to win two more games and become a true Cinderella story.
Even long shots in the past like George Mason, Butler and VCU do not even compare to the unlikely hood of FGCU.
FGCU is the second lowest seed in a brackets region. It has no business even being talked about at this point.
The Eagles next challenge comes from the dominant program in the state: the Florida Gators.
I say, forget my bracket, let the Eagle wins continue. Let the madness continue.
I've got Florida Gulf Coast fever, and I don’t want it to go away.
(03/21/13 11:15pm)
The more things stay the same, the more they change.
(03/04/13 11:11pm)
Have you heard of a 5-foot-11, 181-pound kid from Buffalo, N.Y., who looks like the guy who played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars movies and is one of the best athletes in the pro sports right now?
Of course you haven’t, because he plays hockey.
His name is Patrick Kane, and he is a right-winger for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Right now, he is the best player on the best team in professional sports, and U.S. sports fans need to take notice.
Forget LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Forget Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels.
Kane is straight killing it right now on the ice.
So far in this short season, he has 11 goals and 15 assists, which ranks him fifth in the NHL with 26 points.
But it's the leadership and effect that Kane has on his team that is scalding hot. They have not lost in regulation since the season started.
There needs to be more Kane coverage for one reason — he is American. He is excelling in a sport that has always been dominated by players from the north.
Kane is an American player that can be a national icon for American fans. Reach the columnist at edmund.hubbard@asu.edu
(02/14/13 1:00am)
Two words: Space Jam. But we will get to that later. The greatest player to ever step onto a basketball court, Michael Jordan, will turn 50 years young on Feb. 17. I am not writing this to compare His Airness to this generation's stars like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. I wanted to take some time and celebrate how Jordan changed the game of basketball forever. He did things that seemed impossible with a basketball. What he did off the court made him a global icon. He transcended sports and made himself a household name for people who knew nothing of sports. It's got to be the shoes! There were other players that had shoes named after them, like Chuck Taylor and the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird Weapon. But the Air Jordans changed one man into a brand. They're still making those shoes, and MJ hasn't even played since 2003. I believe I can fly. Name another professional athlete that can save a gang of cartoon characters from alien enslavement. If you didn't watch "Space Jam" when you were a kid, you need to get your childhood back. Will there be another player like Jordan on the court? Maybe. But will there be another sports icon like him? Never again.Reach the reporter at edmund.hubbard@asu.edu
(01/25/13 1:00pm)
It’s over, Arizona Diamondbacks fans. It is time to move on.
(01/22/13 11:22pm)
There is an aspect of sports reporting that needs to stop.
(01/15/13 2:20am)
Senior Keelan Johnson might have played his last game in a Sun Devils uniform, and senior Josh Hubner may have signed an agent, but they are not done playing college football.
(12/30/12 6:36am)
Michigan State’s Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl victory at Sun Devil Stadium was like eating a dozen Buffalo Wild Wings.
(12/10/12 11:49pm)
Navy versus Army was the only game broadcasted last Saturday, so Midshipmen freshman quarterback Keenan Reynolds received a lot of national attention.
(12/09/12 10:39pm)
Some other writers here at The State Press have written in this space that the great program of Northern Illinois deserves their BCS bid to the Orange Bowl.
(12/04/12 12:13am)
Gold is the brightest color that the Sun Devils wear, but the players that wear it in practice everyday don’t get noticed much.
(11/26/12 1:36am)
Let’s see the bandwagon Notre Dame fans in three…two…one.
(11/24/12 6:42am)
TUCSON — UA’s roller coaster of a game against ASU crashed to a disastrous end in the fourth quarter.
(11/20/12 11:54pm)
UA challenges ASU in Tucson looking to win back-to-back Territorial Cup games.