ROCKINGHAM —During Thursday’s intrasquad practice, Richmond County football fans were treated to an early preview of what game nights at Raiders Stadium will look like.
Music pumped from the sound system as the newly-installed, LED floodlights illuminated the gridiron stage for dozens of Raiders faithful to warm up their vocal cords ahead of the season-opener in two weeks.
“It was fantastic to see all the folks out here. It’s not a surprise,” Richmond head coach Bryan Till said shortly after the workouts.
“We just want to make sure we’re doing our part that people want to come see us play.”
With the sun not yet set, players from both the varsity and junior varsity lined up for routine pass-catching, defensive and special teams drills. A select few from the jayvee group ran offensive plays against some of the varsity members before giving way to a half-hour session of strictly varsity action.
Till says his first takeaway from the game-like simulation to end the practice was how much the players were affected by the evening temperatures.
“We had a lot of guys getting hype about coming to the stadium. Afternoon temperatures are really different…I felt like we gassed out really quick because of that,” he said.
As the offensive and defensive starters were rotated with backups, players were seen immediately running to water stations and stretching to avoid cramps. Till’s staff staunchly believes in research that suggests that early-season cramps are mainly related to how much pressure the nervous system is under and then gets aggravated by humid temperatures. He says it was good to get the team prepared for that ahead of the regular season.
The offense didn’t seemed bothered by the change in practice venue or time as it kept churning behind starting quarterback Caleb Hood. Though the scrimmage didn’t follow the regular format of regulation games, it did feature referees and the new 40-second game clock.
Hood’s ability to break the defense down with his legs was evident throughout the live sessions as he gashed through for big gains on the ground.
Senior running back Jaheim Covington was just as effective, showcasing his bulldozing skillset. He burst for a big run in the early portion of the 11-on-11 situational drill and steadily fought off initial tackles for positive yardage.
Till admired how physical Covington was, being that it was against his own teammates, and said it will drive them to get better in the future.
“I thought the effort was ok, but the execution was not. We gave up a lot of things that we shouldn’t have tonight, but our offense is pretty dang good,” he said about the defense.
Up next, the Raiders head to Lee County on Saturday for their first full-contact action against another team. Till plans to “sub like crazy” as the group will scrimmage against the Yellow Jackets as well as Northern Durham and Southern Lee.
This weekend’s festivities start at 9:30 a.m.
