MERRY CHRISTMAS from Deep in the Heart of Texas

Merry Christmas!

Well, we arrived yesterday afternoon, and as you can see by the picture below, there were alot of smiles everywhere.

San Antonio is a GREAT destination, and those that had never been here before are blown away of how nice the Riverwalk and the surroundings are. Aleady, the comments from the players, coaches, managers and others that are here for the first time are very positive and they are LOVING it!!!

Once we arrived, everyone went to a welcoming dinner at our hotel. After a few short announcements, everyone had free time.

The equipment staff is meeting at 11am this morning in the lobby so we can get to work over at University of Incarnate Word (UIW). We have to get ready for a 2pm practice.

Benny, Robert Lloyd, Mike Baranowski and Billy Worthington put in a full day yesterday, as they got the truck unloaded at the hotel early yesterday and then set everything up over at UIW.

We hope you have a GREAT day with family and friends!

We Are Done Working in Tucson, Off to San Antonio

Well, our work in Tucson is done for our preparation for the Alamo Bowl! Tim Pfennig, Benny Conger and the Student Equipment Managers did an OUTSTANDING job of getting this team ready for the bowl trip! Zac Cook and Tom Boesel also played an important role in getting the Wildcats ready. I am very blessed to have so many great people around me. I truly am the LUCKIEST GUY IN THE WORLD!!!!!

Benny and three of our finest managers (Mike Baranowski, Robert Lloyd and Billy Worthington) left this morning on an early Southwest Airlines flight to San Antonio. They will arrive early and get everything set up there for our arrival. The rest of us will fly with the team tomorrow on our team charter. We will all be together Christmas Eve for dinner at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk, our team hotel.

Then, Christmas day we start working again, as we will have practice that afternoon at University of the Incarnate Word. The entire team and families will have Christmas Dinner together that evening.

Our staff has an AWESOME responsibility of getting this team ready and moved, and they were OUTSTANDING in getting it done. They did a great job of doing a lot of up front work, and that will allow us to have a smooth and stress free bowl week in San Antonio.

Tim Pfennig has an incredible responsibility as my right hand man, and he hit home runs every day since we knew we were going to the Alamo Bowl. Of course, he has had this role for three years and this is his third bowl game in a row, so he has become an expert in moving a team for a bowl game. He and Benny make a great team, and they are GREAT at what they do. Those two make it so much fun for me, and that is why I can not wait to get to work each day! They do not get enough credit for all their hard work and loyalty to me and the program. THANKS GUYS!!!

Below are a few pictures of our last day of work in Tucson.




Benny Conger was given the responsibility to get the truck loaded for our trip to San Antonio. He was able to get all the trunks, player bags, field equipment, and personal luggage (including 4 Christmas Trees for Coaches families) on the truck for our bowl trip:

Once again, Horizon Moving will be responsible for getting the Wildcats moved to the bowl game:

Mike Baranowski takes a personal bag up to the truck. Coaches families started dropping of bags and boxes, Christmas Trees, and even Tricycles at 8am on our last day of practice in Tucson:

Benny had plenty of help from our staff of the GREATEST student equipment managers in the country! I can't say enough good things about our student managers. They are AWESOME!!!

Benny got the trunks loaded up front starting at 6am on our last day in Tucson:


Ryan Ewalt and Benny put out the ramps so the trainers can side load their trunks on to the truck before we take off for practice:

Buses lined up waiting for players, while we are busy loading the truck with trunks and personal luggage:

Players loading up for practice at Salpointe High School, wear they have Field Turf, just like what we will be playing on in AlamoDome:

Players headed to the buses for our last practice in Tucson:

We are Getting Very Close to Leaving for San Antonio

We only have one more practice here in Tucson, then it is off to San Antonio, DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS, to get ready for the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Alamo Bowl.

Tomorrow we will load up the truck with everything, then head east on I-10 for San Antonio. Tonight we will have everything ready and we will start loading the truck up first thing in the morning.

Today we finished getting in all the bowl gear and tonight we got it all printed and issued to players. Now all that is left is getting it all to San Antonio.

Practices are going great!

Michael Barnett helps clear the field of HEAVY pop up dummies after passing drills at the beginning of practice:

Billy Worthington helps shag balls during passing drills:

Ben Hulka catches up for Coach Kish. These guys have been together for 4 years!

Managers snap balls to QB's during passing drills:


Jack Banker makes shagging balls look very comfortable and easy:

On the other hand, Michael Barnett knows one speed.......FAST:


Ben Hulka and John Landwehr hustle while running the defense versus scouts:

Tim Pfennig adjust a chinstrap during practice:

Jordan Gobel clears the field after special teams period:

John Landwehr plays QB during OL/DL drills:

Yesterday was a long, yet very productive day! Below are some pictures of some of our work in getting the team ready for the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

All the managers put in a long day yesterday to get our team ready for our bowl trip to San Antonio:
Michael Barnett and John Landwehr put double stick tape on the back of the locker nameplates that we made ourselves in the equipment room:

Jordan Gobel puts numbers in the bowl sweats for one of her players that she is responsible for:

David Bodzin retrieves bowl sweats from the boxes so he can number them:

Mike Reed gets some bowl sweats ready for one of his players:


Jack Banker does some weeding so we can number the bowl gear for the players:

Robert Lloyd presses a number in sweat top for the bowl gear:

After we make numbers using our Cad Cutter, the managers have to "weed" the logos:

There are the numbers we use to print players numbers in the gear we give them:

One of the managers responsibilities yesterday was to also issue the gear to the players using the computer inventory system:

Ben Hulka and Jordan work hard yesterday before practice:

Mike Harlow, along with all of the other managers, worked very hard yesterday getting the players bowl sweats numbered and issued to the players going to the bowl game in San Antonio:

Ryan Ewalt uses one of the many heat transfer machines to put number in one of his players bowl sweats:

Jack Banker gets some of his players ready for bowl practice gear yesterday morning before practice:

Adam Grant hits the sled early yesterday in 70 degree weather in Tucson yesterday:

Michael Barnett, Jack Banker and Jordan Bates feed balls to the quarterbacks during passing drills:

Robert Lloyd assist the other managers during drills yesterday:

Managers shag balls for the quarterbacks during passing drills yesterday:

Managers work extremely hard at practice yesterday at Salpointe High School where they have field turf, much like the Alamodome turf:

Billy Worthington hustles an empty ball bag back to the sideline where he and Robert Lloyd assist during passing drills:

Billy Worthington and Robert Lloyd work the sideline during passing drills:

Robert Lloyd loads balls into ball bag during passing drills:

Newest coach, Joe Salave'a works his first practice yesterday at Salpointe High School:

Mike Harlow and Mike Baranowski spot balls during offensive team drills during practice yesterday:

Mike Harlow and Mike Baranowski work the jugs machine for the receivers during special teams period:

Ben Hulka works with other managers working the jugs machine during special teams:

Managers work with Juron Criner on the jugs machine during special teams period:

Jordan Gobel hustles at practice yesterday:

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!

We are getting down to less than a week before we load up the truck and head to San Antonio for our bowl game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Things are really starting to get much busier, now that finals are over and the players are all done with studying for the semester.

Our student managers were able to get some time off for studying as well. Now, all the focus is on getting our team to San Antonio for about a week of practice and a game.

We will be working all weekend getting ready. Our bowl workout gear is hitting the door as I type, so we have alot of that stuff to get ready for each player.

Today we spent alot of time getting bag tags ready, patches on jerseys, locker nameplates, and of course, practice over at the stadium.

We will be back at it first thing in the morning. We have to host some recruits in the equipment room in the morning, then it will be getting players gear ready, and then go set up for a practice over at Salpointe High School.

You can begin to feel the excitement as time draws close for us to go on the road again!

Tomorrow morning we will talk to some recruits here in our equipment room, so we have set up a display to show them some of our equipment:

We get alot of request for team autographed balls, so we have had the players come by this week to sign some balls:

This is our planned look for the game against the Cowboys in the Alamo Bowl.

Jordan Bates gets the locker name plates organized for our bowl trip to San Antonio:

We do all of our nameplates for road games right here in our own equipment room. Many schools buy them from companies that specialize in this trade, but when you have the BEST student equipment managers in the country, why not just do them yourselves and save the school money?

Ryan Ewalt cuts the nameplates for our trip to San Antonio:


This is a stack of locker name plates for the locker room at University of the Incarnate Word locker room we will be using.

The managers also made luggage and bag tags for all the coaches and football staff to use through out the year and on this upcoming trip to San Antonio.

This is how this years baggage tags turned out, with the Alamo Bowl logo on them:

Coach Stoops has an envelope full of luggage tags with the bowl logo on them:

One of our superstar managers, Jordan Gobel, uses a checklist to make sure each of the players for the bowl game have patches on their game jersey:

Before Jordan sews the patch to the jersey, she uses our heat transfer machine to press the patch, which has an adhesive backing, to the jersey so it is easier to sew on.

Jordan sews ALL of our patches on ALL of our jerseys! She is the BEST!!!!!

Jordan putting the final stitches to the patch and jersey:

Meanwhile, Benny gets the basketball team all packed up for their trip to NC State for a game on Sunday. They just played last night and then they leave after a morning practice tomorrow. Things are busy in the equipment room!!!