Lamar Football held their 2nd annual “Night of Champions” last night which is a strength and conditioning event held in the stadium to showcase individuals as they attempt to set new school and personal bests on 3 different lifts. The showcase is the culmination of the spring strength and conditioning program. In all, 11 school records were set in either the week leading up to the event or in the event itself. The records are broken down into individual lifts for each position group along with 3-lift totals for each group. The records that fell were:

 

QB:

Squat - Adam Morse - 480 (broke his own record)

 

RB:

Squat - Derrion Randle - 515

Clean - Derrion Randle - 340

 

WR:

Bench - Zae Giles - 315

 

TE:

Squat - Dawud Shorts - 525

 

OL:

Total - Garrett Bowery - 1313

 

DL:

Bench - Darien Wilson - 470

 

LB:

Squat - David Crosley - 525

Clean - David Crosley - 367

Total - David Crosley - 1262

 

Specialist:

Squat - Elvin Martinez - 500

 

On top of the 11 records set, S&C coach Dan Darcy said that across the board, the team average is up +25 in the bench, +30 in the squat and +20 in the clean from last year’s numbers.

 

http://lamarcardinals.com/news/2018/4/24/football-records-fall-at-night-of-champions.aspx

 

https://m.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/lamar/article/Lamar-football-shows-off-strength-at-second-Night-12862235.php#photo-15448242

Whether the improved strength numbers transfer to the field or not we will have to wait and see, but it is improvement that is objective. Also the fact that Morse has the strongest legs could make up for presumed lack of speed as a dual threat qb.

Whether the improved strength numbers transfer to the field or not we will have to wait and see, but it is improvement that is objective. Also the fact that Morse has the strongest legs could make up for presumed lack of speed as a dual threat qb.

 

I agree with that assessment of Morse. If he has a solid base like that, it makes it harder to bring him down.

 

Another guy that stood out to me is Derrion Randle. I’ve been waiting for him to make his presence known since he was signed but it appears he is finally on track for that. Just to refresh memories, Randle suffered a severe knee injury including a torn ACL at the end of his senior year that, in part, cost him a scholarship offer to Colorado State. He took a RS as a freshman and from what I was directly told, he didn’t fully trust his knee as a RS-Fr. Last year there were a few glimpses of his talent but nothing consistent. He also shaved off .13 on his 40 according to his Twitter and ripped off a 4.38. That combination of strength and speed should pay dividends this season and I’ll again look for him to break out.