Bears Practice Under The Lights
9/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 20, 2004
After a three-day break, the 1-1 Baylor football team returned to work with a two-hour practice in helmets and shorts Monday evening on the Floyd Casey Stadium turf in preparation Saturday's 6 p.m. (Central) game against 0-3 North Texas. Saturday's game against the Mean Green begins a stretch that has the Bears facing seven 2003 bowl teams over the season's final nine games.
"Tonight was good, the kids were fresh and it was nice and cool," said Baylor coach Guy Morriss. "They enjoy coming in here and working under the lights. They were pretty focused and relaxed. Some of those new wrinkles, you know, we got a days jump on.
"I think their attitude is good," he added. "They had a little spring back in their step and were pretty chipper. I was pleased with tonight's practice."
Morriss announced following practice that Baylor fifth-year junior wide receiver John Martin, who sustained a concussion in the Bears' season-opening loss to UAB, has elected to retire from football. Martin, who has already earned his bachelor's degree from Baylor in communications, will remain with the program has an undergraduate assistant working with Baylor receivers coach Harold Jackson. He had four receptions for 42 yards at UAB and finished his career with 58 receptions for 677 yards.
A native of Stillwater, Okla., Martin twice earned first-team Academic All-Big 12 honors and was a first-team 2003 CoSIDA Academic All-District VI honoree. Over the summer, he had been granted a sixth year of athletic eligibility by the NCAA and received one of the Big 12's 2004 Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarships.
"John is officially retiring from football because of the concussions," Morriss said. "We'll put him to work in the office and let him help Coach (Harold) Jackson).
"Any time a players' safety is involved, from a medical standpoint, I stay out of that," he added. "It is entirely up to the medical staff and our trainer, Mike Sims. We are going to miss John on the field, but I believe he can be a tremendous asset to our program working with some of our younger guys. I'm glad that he still wants to help us out, because having another set of eyes (on the field) will be a good thing."
Baylor will return to practice on Tuesday afternoon.
Practice Notes: Players returning to practice Monday included sophomore defensive lineman Julian Hill (shoulder), junior linebacker Tyler Lindstrom (broken hand), sophomore defensive end Paul Howard (hamstring), redshirt freshman defensive back Zach Zachry (hamstring) and senior defensive back David Schieck (hamstring) ... Sophomore running back Brandon Whitaker (knee), redshirt freshman defensive back Jason Reaux (broken wrist) and freshman linebacker Ben Hixson (recovering from hip surgery last Friday) missed the workout, as did about 10 players who had academic conflicts ... Tickets for Baylor's Sept. 25 Parents' Weekend game against North Texas are on sale through the Baylor Athletic Ticket Office, over the phone at 1-800-Baylor-U or on the web at www.baylorbears.com ... Kick-off for the Bears' Oct. 2 game at Texas has been set for 11:30 a.m. and the game will be televised on a pay-per-view basis by Fox Sports ... Baylor sophomore punter Daniel Sepulveda ranks first nationally in punting with his 49.2 yard average.
