Inside the Huddle with Daymond Patterson (Sept. 29)

Sept. 29, 2011

Inside the Huddle Blog Archive

Hey everyone! My name is Daymond Patterson ll. I am a senior wide receiver here at KU, well I was a senior, but after the injury I suffered during the first game I will hopefully be receiving a medical redshirt and will be back on the field again next year for KU. Most of you all probably know me from the football field as No. 15, but if you are socially hip, you might have seen some of the videos my roommate, KU tight end AJ Steward, and I did over the summer. Check these out if you haven’t already:

Enough about me! Some of you are probably wondering why I am sitting here doing a blog. After Coach Gill and myself decided it was better for me to sit out the rest of the season, it freed up a little of my time and one thing that we felt would be a pretty cool thing to do would be to give the fans an inside scoop on some of the things happening with Kansas Football. I will be blogging weekly about some of things that happen throughout the week as we prepare for the upcoming game, the actual game and other interesting things happening with the team and on campus. So here we go!

Two players I would like to feature in this week’s blog are freshman WR JaCorey Shepherd and senior DL Patrick Dorsey. Both JaCorey and Patrick have missed some practice and game time this fall with injuries. In fact, Patrick has yet to play in a game. I am so happy to see both of these players healthy again and able to get back on the field. Since we were all injured during the same time period, I got to see firsthand how hard they both have worked each day to get healthy and so they could get back on the field for Big 12 Conference play.

Now that JaCorey and Patrick are healthy, they no longer have to do the workouts during practice that the strength coaches put the injured players through. Unfortunately, this leaves me over there to fend for myself while assistant strength coach Shaun McPherson and former player-turned assistant strength coach Justin Springer put me through long workouts. I am still trying to figure out if we are working out to stay in shape over there or training for the next 300 movie, because the amount of ab work we do is just crazy! The workouts aren’t the only thing killing me over there, but what’s also killing me is that I don’t have anyone to talk to anymore during the workouts and if you haven’t figured out by now, I kind of like talking. After JaCorey and Patrick were cleared to return to practice, I asked them both the same three questions which were: 1. How does it feel to be able to get back on the field again? 2. What was the worst part about being injured? 3. What Shephardwas a positive, if any, that came from being injured?

JaCorey’s answers were as follows:

1. It just feels great to be back out there and contribute to the team. I am ready to pick up where I left off from the first few games.

2. Having to sit out of practice on the side, watching my teammates prepare without me has to be by far be the worst part about being injured.

3. While I was injured, I found more time to watch film and get prepared for games, which I feel will really benefit me throughout the rest of the season.

Patrick, or as we call him `Patty-Doe’ answered with the following:

Dorsey1. It feels good to be back with my teammates and back on the field practicing. It means so much to me being a senior and being able to play my last year and I’m just happy to be able to help the team again.

2. The worst part about being injured is having to sit and watch everyone else practice and play in the games. I went through training camp, summer workouts and spring ball with these guys, so watching from the sidelines and not being able to lend a helping hand was very frustrating.

3. This was a very humbling experience and made me more passionate for the game of football and I am grateful to have had an opportunity to play Division I football. This injury made me more focused and dedicated to getting back on the field to help my team reach all of its goals my last year here at Kansas.

The last time our team took the field we had a very disappointing loss at Georgia Tech. After a long bye week, which enabled everybody to get healthy again, our team is more focused and ready to start conference play off on the right foot. Just from sitting in the wide receiver room through the bye week and throughout this week, I can feel the urgency that Coach Beaty and the wide receiving corps is bringing into this game. The sense of urgency doesn’t stop there with the wide receivers because I can also feel it from the rest of the team. Everyone has been flying around in practice and being physical knowing that that is what it is going to take to get a win this Saturday. After being around these guys since we last played, I can really see the hunger our team has to get a win in our first conference game. I would really be surprised if our team didn’t play our best game of the year thus far when Texas Tech comes to Lawrence.

Jayhawk fans, if you have time to swing by Wescoe Beach this Friday (Sept. 30), Coach Gill will be signing autographs at noon. It will be a fun time on the beach and you will get a chance to say what’s up to Coach and get to interact with him a little bit off the field. This weekend should be a pretty good time in Lawrence with the football team coming off a bye week and its Homecoming so you already know there will be plenty to do. I am personally looking forward to seeing all the Jayhawk alumni coming back for weekend to support the team and to meet back up with friends from college. Well that’s all for this first blog everybody have a good Homecoming weekend ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

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