Skip To Main Content

Upcoming Events and Recent Results

Western Illinois University Athletics

Max Norris

Leathernecks Kick Off Fall Camp

Western took the practice fields Tuesday morning for the opening day of 2019 Fall Camp.

MACOMB, Ill. – In his second year at the helm of the program, Western Illinois head football coach Jared Elliott welcomed 99 student-athletes to Macomb Wednesday, July 31, for the first official day of fall camp.  

The mid-morning practice marked the first of a four-week schedule leading up to their August 29 season-opener at North Alabama. 

QUOTABLES

Coach Elliott on the first day of practice: "It's so exciting to be back out here with the guys. The first day you want to see detailed things, great effort, energy, and urgency moving around from drill to drill. Obviously, on the first day, we need to clean up execution and have a long ways to go to build there. The good thing is we have a lot of time before week one. I was really happy today with new guys in new roles. It's fun to see this 2019 team out here as a whole for the first time."

Twenty-four practices separate the Leathernecks from the first game of the 2019 season. The squad lost a lot of its veteran leadership but returned a senior core of starters in Eric Carrera (DB), John Brunner (WR), Zach Glisan (LB), Nathan Erickson (P/K), Max Norris (RB) and LaCale London (DL). 

In total, 63 student-athletes returned from a season ago. 

Coach Elliott on the senior leadership: "We have great senior leadership …  They are guys who have been in our program, and it's fun to see that the torch has been passed to them. The seniors are seeing that they have younger guys looking up to them and that motivates them to take on a leadership role."

Zach Glisan on how it felt to be back at practice: "It felt awesome, we made a lot of plays and I think we had eight turnovers on the defensive side. Execution wasn't always there, but we are knocking the rust off. The effort was always there which is always a plus ... The energy was great on both sides. Everybody was excited and hopefully, we can that up for day five, 15 and further. I was very proud of everyone today."

Glisan on what we expects to see from the defense during the first week of fall camp: "I want to see effort, and if you make a mistake then make it 100 miles per hour. You can't get down on yourself because mistakes are going to happen in the first week."

Clint Ratkovich (RB) was named  First Team All-Missouri Valley selection last year and is the lone returning captain. 

Ratkovich on what he saw from the offense: "Coach [Elliott] uses the term urgency a lot, and we moved well in and out of the huddle, but we just have to clean some little things up."

Ratkovich on assessing the running back corps: "We have a lot of versatility and some guys that can do some different things, so we're ready to expose some defenses with that." 




 
Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Now Playing:

Related Stories