Last season, when his line broke down and his receivers couldn't catch a cold, Larry Smith withdrew within himself and looked tentative and even confused. So in addition to opposing defenses, Vandy fans smelled blood in the water and started moving in for the kill: Larry's not accurate... Larry's not as mobile as we thought... oh, yeah, and Larry's a bad leader.
Well, in addition to his accuracy, Larry's been reportedly working on his leadership, which has been evident by the fact that he's been vocal with his teammates and he's stayed late to mesh with his receivers.
And he's throwing the ball onto Natchez Trace.
That's right, the Tennessean is reporting that in yesterday's practice, when Larry's coverage broke down and he was forced to run for his life and no place to go but out of bounds, he got mad and threw the ball over the practice field fence and onto Natchez Trace.
No mention of him breaking the windshield of a fuel tanker causing the driver to swerve into an oak grove and launch a fiery explosion like what used to happen in nearly every episode of "CHIPS."
Coach Caldwell then made Larry take a hike and retrieve the football. "That's the only right thing to do," Caldwell told Jeff Lockridge. "Why ask a manager to go get something for something a player did? It's family here."
So was Larry showing leadership to the rest of the family? Maybe not, but I like it. He wasn't drooping his head and slinking back to the huddle. No, he was getting really pissed off. And then he threw the ball onto Natchez Trace, like Superman would have done if he was playing football and got pissed off at his offense except that Superman would have probably disabled a satellite.
And then Larry's teammates said, "Hey, Larry's pissed off." And then his freshman receivers said, "Hey, Larry's got a cannon, and I'm fast and have good hands so I could be a real star here. Hey, freshmen linemen, could you start blocking a little?" And then the freshmen linemen said, "I'm going to start holding and I hope I don't get caught."
So Larry was sending a message. He wants to win and he's sick of Vandy's crappy offense and he wants to do something to change that.
4 comments:
And what happens in the afternoon? Receivers catch the ball. From Larry. From Jared. From Charlie. And even from Jordan. The Offense scores,several times. Much better than the sulking I saw a time or two from Larry last year.
Good to hear, Bill. I think Larry's much improved over last year.
This is all good and I am ready for football. Go Dores
Where's Goro?
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