Ambrose hits campus

It didn’t take long for Rob Ambrose to set the tone for this spring practice. Instead of his team suiting up for drills at Johnny Unitas Stadium, he put the roster on display at one of the busiest campus locales.

“This is not last year!” Ambrose bellowed as quarterbacks and wide receivers did up-downs as discipline from their coach at Burdick Field Friday afternoon. “If you don’t like it, get up, take off your helmet, and walk.”

With that, the 2009 season got underway for the Tigers as Ambrose led the team in their first spring practice in front of chatty students.

After replacing longtime Towson icon Gordy Combs, first-year head coach Ambrose and his staff focused the team on positional drills without pads while also lining up for some offense-defense drills.  Ambrose, who did not look at any game film of the returning roster, said everyone is starting with a clean slate.

“I don’t know what was here before,” Ambrose said. “I know what needs to be done for us to win at this level. My guys are going to be intense. My coaches are going to be intense. The bar has been raised. The depth chart is completely fluid and they know that. ”

The rebuilt staff includes new defensive coordinator Matt Hachmann and his assistants, former NFL player Canute Curtis, Brian Fleury and Derrick Johnson. While Ambrose will mostly likely call the plays in his first season at the helm, he welcomes new quarterbacks coach John Kaleo, running-backs coach James Vollono and younger brother Jared Ambrose on the offensive side while retaining wide receivers coach Guilian Gary and offensive line coach John Donatelli, whose fiery demeanor was seen often during the practice with one mantra: finish.

“I want this team to be tough, and I want them to finish,” Ambrose said. “I want them to play as hard as they possibly can, believe that they can do anything and finish everything they start. We’re going to outwork people, we’re going to outhustle people and we’re going to believe that we can because we will. We do that, we’ll win some ballgames.”

No depth chart has been set by the coaching staff at any positions, but the strength of the team figures to be along the defensive line, where they return potential third- year starting defensive tackle Yaky Ibia, a rising junior, as well as rising sophomores Marcus Valentine and Rob Osborne, who also have plenty of game experience. Ben Hunolt offers a pass-rusher off the edge and Brady Smith, a Boston College transfer who spent two seasons starting along the Eagles’ front, could be a dominant force at the FCS level. Smith was found in the backfield on numerous occasions during the practice, beating the offensive linemen with his power moves.

Another standout in the practice was Ryan Hanley, who is shifting from offensive guard to fullback this season. Listed at 315 pounds, Hanley had to lose plenty of that weight to make the switch and looked nimble during the offense versus defense drills, catching a couple of passes out of the backfield and even gaining significant yardage after the catches on his receptions.

The Tigers’ spring game is scheduled for April 25 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

Comments

2 comments

Ellen M Morrison

Wed Apr 8 2009 12:42

Hooray for Ryan Hanley. I know he will be an asset to the team.

TUalumnus

Mon Mar 30 2009 17:21

Ambrose is the man!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out