Eastern gets respect after solid '17

SAN ANTONIO — On Tuesday, the Lone Star Conference held its annual LSC Football Preseason Media Day at San Antonio's Marriott Riverwalk Hotel. The event, which features a lunch and interviews with players and coaches from all nine schools, is highlighted by the league's annual preseason poll and player of the year picks.

One thing that Greyhounds coach Kelley Lee took out of Tuesday's event is that his team has gained quite a bit of respect from around the league. The Hounds were picked third in the poll, trailing only the defending Division II national champions Texas A&M-Commerce and defending LSC champion Midwestern State.

"It's nice to get that respect from your colleagues and other people that follow the Lone Star Conference. I think it's a sign of the season we had last year, and where our program has been headed the last few years," Lee said.

"It's nice, but it's a preseason poll — it's not gonna help us win any games for next year. So, we gotta keep that in the back of our mind and get moving forward."

In fact, the Greyhounds, who finished 6-2 in league play and 8-2 overall last year, play those two teams within the season's first five weeks. And oh yeah, those two programs are responsible for Eastern's only losses a season ago.

However, as far as bulletin board material for his players, Lee says perhaps that would be the case if his team was ranked a lot lower. "You always like it when you're picked about seventh or eighth," he said, laughing. "Then you can really use it as motivation. But when you're on top, you understand that other teams are gonna be doing that. When you've had some sustained success, you realize that now you're starting to be one of those teams that other people are gunning for. That makes things that much more tougher, because you're not gonna sneak up on anybody anymore."

The remaining six spots in the poll were rounded out by Angelo State, Tarleton State, Texas A&M-Kingsville, West Texas A&M, UT-Permian Basin and Western New Mexico. Besides those rankings, a preseason offensive and defensive player of the year was selected.

This year, Midwestern quarterback Layton Rabb was chosen as the LSC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while Angelo State defensive end Markus Jones was the LSC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year honoree.

Rabb threw for 3,109 yards, with 31 touchdown passes and just five interceptions in 2017. Jones, meanwhile, led the conference in sacks and tackles for loss, with 10.5 and 18.5, respectively.

"Both outstanding players," Lee said. "Rabb is a very good quarterback and led a very high-powered offense. I think him and (ENMU quarterback) Wyatt (Strand) are both definitely above the other quarterbacks heading into the start of the season. Markus from Angelo State, he wreaked havoc last year. Very logical choice there as well."

Since the end of spring practices, coaches have not been allowed contact with the players, as strength and conditioning coach Larry Varnado has been in charge of player workouts and training.

Thus far from what Lee's heard, however, things have appeared strong over the past few months. More players than ever have stayed around for the summer to keep training, and the enthusiasm for the workouts has been high as well.

"I think our guys realize that we got a tough schedule, especially early on," Lee said. "We need to be in shape, and we need to be playing our best football, early in the year if we're gonna accomplish any of our goals."

Fall camp starts Aug. 4 with meetings and physicals, and practices begin on Aug. 6. Lee says the NCAA has basically done away with two-a-day practices, so ENMU will only have a morning practice, plus workouts and a walk-through during the camp.

"The walk-throughs, the meetings, the film, all the mental side of it, it's really become more of a learning (process)," Lee said. "It's more important that your kids are coming in shape in the summer, because the days of running them into shape are long gone."