GREENSBORO, N.C. – No major news from Friedgen during his roughly hour and 15 minute session with the media today. Around 7 p.m., as thunderstorms roared outside, we lost power in the conference room. That pretty much ended things.
Among the topics discussed (and there were many, many topics believe me) were Friedgen’s diet, Friedgen’s philosophical musings on today’s generation of youth and finally some football!
Follow me to the jump for some key tidbits.
- Defensive tackle Dion Armstrong is not academically eligible as of yet. He’s taking a class he needs to pass in the second session of summer courses. If he passes, he’s in.
Friedgen said he’s not sure if he’ll know Armstrong’s status before the start of preseason camp on Aug. 10. He’s hoping to have a strong indication though.
- Why might Armstrong’s status be even more important than it appears on the surface? Friedgen said he’s been pondering moving current defensive tackle A.J. Francis to the offensive line- he thinks he has the skills and physique to help out the vastly inexperienced unit.
Problem is, Francis is currently listed as the No. 1 nose tackle on the depth chart next to Travis Ivey.
- As for that offensive line, Friedgen said he has no better sense of how they are progressing since spring ended. He’s hoping center Phil Costa and tackle Bruce Campbell, the elder statesmen of that unit, have nurtured them well during summer workouts.
- Friedgen has lost 95 pounds since he started his now famous diet plan last October. Then, he was 401 pounds. His goal is to lose 150 total. When a confused reporter late to the session asked if Friedgen had meant he wanted to get down to 150 pounds total, Friedgen responded, “I was born at 150 pounds.”
It was one of about three or four legitimately funny lines he had while discussing his weight. I must add, it was a discussion that lasted roughly 20 minutes. It’s incredible how open and detailed Friedgen gets when talking about it. And so far, he’s getting the job done.
- I mentioned the philosophical musings. I only labeled them as “philosophical” because it was Friedgen himself who said, “I don’t want to get philosophical on you,” when answering some questions.
Basically, Friedgen talked at length about the responsibility he feels to make his players successful in life for the rest of their lives, on and off the football field.
It sounds cliche, but when Friedgen gets into it, it’s obvious he’s speaking about how he genuinely feels. It may have caught some of the out-of-town reporters off guard though, in a good way of course. Friedgen didn’t really get to talking about purely football-related topics until about 25-30 minutes into his session.
That’s it from here in Greensboro. I’ll be back tomorrow with some extra stuff and look for a story on the conference’s football standing in Thursday’s summer print edition.
Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.
[...] The Diamondback’s Aaron Kraut says Dion Armstrong not academically eligible yet [...]