Ryan Kuehl

       I went to work today. A normal Wednesday is the longest day of the week. I arrived at 7:20 a.m. to work out with Dan, our strength coach. He puts me through one hour of pure hell. Today I did a workout called “Push Pull.” The workout starts with bench presses then goes to lat. pull-downs. Essentially, you do one pushing exercise, then one pulling exercise. You repeat that pattern about five times. By the way, I benched 315 pounds for 10 repetitions. I’m still too tired to get any real weight on the bar!
       At 8:30 a.m., we have a special-teams meeting. Wednesday it is punt protection and return. Since I am the backup deep snapper too, I need to attend. That is really our first look at the Tennessee Oilers. They have really good “teams.” At 9:15 we have a team meeting. Coach Turner talked about the Dallas game and gave out game balls. Patrice Alexander got the special-teams game ball because he had five solo tackles in the game. The defensive game ball went to Ken Harvey because he played like the stud that he is, and Stephen Davis won the offensive game ball because he ran his ass off replacing Terry Allen. Then Coach Turner talked about how we now have to focus on Tennessee. He is 100-percent right! The Dallas game is over!
       At 9:20, we break to offense/defense meetings. Coach Nolan, the defensive coordinator, hands out the new game plan. We spend the majority of the morning meetings learning the new plan. At 11:00 we have a special-teams walk-through. The coach explains what we are going to do and we can see it at a walking pace. Then at 11:30 we have offensive/defensive walk-through, where we try to accomplish the same thing. Walk-throughs, in general, are really boring, but needed, I guess. They help eliminate mental errors on the practice fields. Mostly, it is a time to get outside, chew some sunflower seeds, and chew the fat with the guys.
       After lunch, we have a quick meeting before practice, then hit the field at 1:45. Because of the Monday-night game, we only went in shoulder pads and helmets. Still, most of the guys were tired. I know every hit hurt more than usual. Wednesday practices consist of a run period, blitz period, special-teams period, and team period. Overall, the practice lasts until about 2:15. Today should have been better, but it is over now. We had a lot of mental mistakes, which means our concentration was poor. We need to be better tomorrow!
       Wednesday is always a good day to get over with. For me, if you make it past Wednesday at 4:00 p.m., you get paid for the week even if you are released. I always think about that when I am driving home. Even though I played pretty well, I am still insecure as hell.