Football Camp Report #2

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Last year the Fordham offense enjoyed a record-setting season with Carlton Koonce breaking the school single season rushing mark, Ryan Higgins throwing for more than 3,000 yards and Brian Wetzel amassing more than 1,000 receiving yards. But on day four of the 2013 Fordham football camp, the defense seemed to be ahead of the offense as they kept the offense in check for most of the practice and forced turnovers during team drills on Jack Coffey Field.
 
On a picture perfect day, head coach Joe Moorhead ran the Rams through their fourth workout of camp, the second with helmets and shoulder pads.
 
"The defense did a great job of forcing turnovers," said Moorhead. "That's the good news. The bad news was that the offense was turning the ball over. I really liked the way the defense fed off of each other's energy today. But we still need to do a better job at avoiding the ups and downs during each practice. We need to work on being more consistent."
 
Last year, the Fordham defense ranked seventh in the Patriot League in both total and passing defense but so far in camp it looks like defensive coordinator David Blackwell has the troops firing on all cylinders, despite working seven freshmen into the rotation.
 
The Rams had multiple team sessions today with the defense making the big plays, holding the offense to short gains and putting pressure on the quarterback as well as forcing numerous turnovers. Junior linebacker Stephen Hodge had a strong practice, picking off a pass and seeming to be in the right place on most running plays.  
 
The offense did find some success in one-on-one matchups between the wide receivers and defensive backs with Brian Wetzel and Sam Ajala, among others, hauling in passes from Michael Nebrich and Peter Maetzold.
 
Notes

Players finishing up summer school: Tuesday will be a busy day for many members of the football squad as they will be taking summer school finals. Practice is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. and the players will be taking finals throughout the day after practice.
 
Freshman getting orientated: The freshman won't be at practice on Tuesday morning as they will be having their second day of NCAA mandated six hours of academic orientation training. Among other topics, the rookies will learn about on and off-campus decorum issues/academic issues, Jesuit education and professorial expectation, the challenges and issues of being a football student-athlete, given by former Ram Mike Martin.
 
First double session on Wednesday:  After five single days of practice, per NCAA regulations, the Rams will have their first two-a-day practice session on Wednesday. Fordham will take to the field and 8:10 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. for a pair of two-hour practices.
 
Two players leave team: Over the weekend it was announced that sophomore Rustom Khouri and freshman Jake Schlanger have left the team. In addition, assistant coach Vincent White, who was responsible for the wide receivers, has also left the team. Head coach Joe Moorhead is taking over the wide receivers until a new coach is hired.