Day Two: Red Raiders in Jacksonville
December 27, 2007 | Football
Dec. 27, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The weather took a turn in the right direction as Texas Tech held its second workout in Jacksonville in warm, humid conditions at the University of North Florida on Thursday afternoon. In typical Florida fashion, today's forecast called for highs in the upper 70s with abundant sunshine, which was a stark contrast to Wednesday night's chilly and damp practice conditions in the mid-40s.
The Red Raiders held a workout similar to Wednesday's, spending the session preparing the game plan for next week's Konica Minolta Gator Bowl against the University of Virginia. Practice opened with a special teams period, followed by position drills and seven-on-seven. The team period closed practice with both offensive and defensive units working against the scout teams.
Following Thursday's practice, the team headed back to the hotel for lunch, before departing for a day of entertainment at Adventure Landing. The Red Raiders enjoyed a myriad of activities, including an arcade, miniature golf, laser tag and batting cages, all sponsored by the Gator Bowl.
The team resumes workouts Friday at 3 p.m. at UNF, following the Big 12 Lunch Down Under at the Jacksonville Beach Outback Steakhouse. The annual children's hospital visit is scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. local time.
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Each day this week a Texas Tech player will share his thoughts on the Gator Bowl, game preparations and activities. Senior wide receiver Danny Amendola visited with us today and shared his thoughts:
Thoughts on the Gator Bowl and practice: "It's a good one. We had a good day yesterday and a good practice. We practiced well this morning and everyone is excited to be here and we're excited to play a good team in Virginia. We had a lot of good practices back in Lubbock and got a lot of good work done. We're just basically doing what we've been doing in practice and hope to carry it over into the game."
Thoughts on the weather: "It was cold yesterday and it feels great today. It was a little humid, but the sun's out and we got some good work in."
Thoughts on the importance of previous bowl experience: "It helps that we have bowl experience. A lot of times you have young guys going to one spot to prepare for a game for a week that haven't been in that situation, so they look up to older guys like myself, Emo (Eric Morris) and Graham and guys that have been around a while and know how to conduct practices and prepare themselves. You're going to get good things when everyone is on the same page."
Thoughts on best bowl game to date: "There was a good one last night between Purdue and Central Michigan. That field goal at the end; Purdue had a good drive and it was exciting to see them win at the end."
