EARLY – Following their first postseason appearance since 2008, and with eight starters back on both sides of the ball, expectations are as high as they’ve been in several seasons heading into Daniel Price’s second year as head coach.
“We’re excited to be out here,” Price said during Monday morning’s initial football practice of the season. “Today you can see it’s a different feel out here compared to what it’s been since I got here five years ago. The kids are fired up, they have a little bit better understanding of the goal and where we’re at and the success we had last year helps us out tremendously.”
Price reported 50 players at Monday’s practice with the hope more are coming.
“It’s not as many as we thought but it’s still a good number,” Price said. “There’s still a few we’re trying to get a hold of.”
The Longhorns are coming off a 5-6 campaign and a bi-district playoff appearance in Price’s first season.
Regarding the biggest differences in this year and last year, Price said, “the COVID restrictions, not having that being the forefront of everything we’re doing has been a bit of a different feel in the program.
“We also have quite a few new faces. We brought in some great coaches and we hired on an athletic trainer, but having it lined up, knowing where we want to go and having that success from last year, knowing we have a chance to do something special again has really made this transition into the second year a lot easier for me.”
The Longhorns’ first scrimmage of the season is slated for Aug. 13 at Goldthwaite. Price stated Early has plenty of work in the two weeks prior to seeing an opponent for the first time in 2021.
“We did a lot of changing on the offensive side so there’s a lot of teaching going on over the first couple days without pads,” Price said. “It gives us an opportunity to change a few things from what we were doing in the spring. Same thing defensively, we’ve got a few tweaks, so we want to have everything taught we need to teach so that when we put pads on we can go full speed and be flying around out here.”
