Speaker 1: The Raging Cajen's football team star wide receiver misses the
Speaker 1: first two days of fall camp practices. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what I know here on Rag and Rundown. What's good,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, and welcome into another episode of Raging Rundown.
Speaker 1: All Cajuns all the time. I'm your guy, your Marcus Fitzpatrick,
Speaker 1: but you know you can always call me fits. And
Speaker 1: in today's episode, we will be talking about wide receiver
Speaker 1: Shelton Sampson missing the first two days of practice in
Speaker 1: fall camp. They have not hit pass just yet. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what I know about the injury, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about some of the players that are in behind
Speaker 1: him that are going to be getting more reps in
Speaker 1: practice that will give them the opportunities with him not
Speaker 1: in action. So Louisiana began fall camp earlier this week.
Speaker 1: Today is Friday as I'm recording this episode, and they
Speaker 1: have had two days of practice. So the first day
Speaker 1: of practice that they had was Wednesday. They reported on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: We spoke to those players and coaches for media days
Speaker 1: on report day, and then their first official practice was
Speaker 1: Wednesday afternoon. So on to and full disclaimer on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: we talked to Sheldon Sampson. He was super excited for
Speaker 1: the season and all these things around in those sorts,
Speaker 1: so it didn't appear that he was hurt at all
Speaker 1: that we knew of. So we get out to practice
Speaker 1: on Wednesdays, and the media members we are given a
Speaker 1: specific time window in which we are able to view
Speaker 1: practice where we can shoot video, take photos and all
Speaker 1: those things like that observe practice. And typically when we've
Speaker 1: been able to do that, it's normally been during their
Speaker 1: individual periods where each position group is sectioned off in
Speaker 1: different parts of the field and they're working on positional drills.
Speaker 1: Receivers running routes, quarterbacks throwing the football, tight ends working
Speaker 1: on block and so on and so forth. And so
Speaker 1: when we got out to the field, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the field. My partner at KTC,
Speaker 1: Anthony Counsel, is on the defensive side of the field.
Speaker 1: And so I make my way around the field and
Speaker 1: I notice in the receiver groups that Shelton Sampson is
Speaker 1: not there. And so as I'm walking back away from
Speaker 1: the field after the period was over in which we
Speaker 1: were able to shoot, I saw that Shelton was in
Speaker 1: a gray jersey, which, for those of you that don't
Speaker 1: know Louisiana, in their practice jerseys, defensive players wear black jerseys,
Speaker 1: Offensive players wear red jerseys. Quarterbacks wear gray jerseys which
Speaker 1: signify non contact, do not touch.
Speaker 2: Keep them upright.
Speaker 1: The only other players that wear those color jerseys are
Speaker 1: players that are not practicing and or injured players. So obviously,
Speaker 1: in our job as the working media, that is a
Speaker 1: topic that we have to discuss, that we have to
Speaker 1: ask questions about, because that is why we are credentialed.
Speaker 1: We get the access to ask those questions, to give
Speaker 1: you all the details of what's going on. We're able
Speaker 1: to do that. I unfortunately was not able to physically
Speaker 1: be in the room, but I sent my partner, Anthony Counsel,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned, to the press conference, and he asked
Speaker 1: coach Desimo what was going on with Sheldon Sampson. And
Speaker 1: here was the sequence of how I went. Sheldon Sampson
Speaker 1: not be out for practice?
Speaker 2: He tell us why is he injured? Just the reason why?
Speaker 2: And will he be out for practice today?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's injured.
Speaker 2: Yeah he's out today. I don't know when he'll be
Speaker 2: back now full disclosure.
Speaker 1: After I saw the clip, I asked Anthony did he
Speaker 1: follow up at all?
Speaker 2: And he told me no. Anthony is very young in
Speaker 2: the industry.
Speaker 1: He's coming along, and so this was a teaching moment
Speaker 1: to tell him there should have been some form of
Speaker 1: follow up questions, what's the severity of his injury? Do
Speaker 1: you think this will keep him out long term? Because
Speaker 1: in that answer he says, yes, he's injured. No, he
Speaker 1: won't practice today. I don't know when he'll be back.
Speaker 1: So obviously I'm not telling coach doesn't know how to
Speaker 1: run his program, but he has very much been so
Speaker 1: very buttoned up, especially when it comes to things about this. However,
Speaker 1: for us as the media, it is our responsibility to
Speaker 1: find the truth, the answers to what is actually going
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes. That's why we have the access
Speaker 1: that we're given, and it is our duty as journalists.
Speaker 2: To get to the truth.
Speaker 1: So I did tell Anthony follow up next time in
Speaker 1: instances like that and ask those follow up questions to
Speaker 1: get more clarity on what's going on. So I made
Speaker 1: some phone calls around and what I was told is
Speaker 1: that during organized team activities and or OTA's which is
Speaker 1: just summer workouts where the players are able to do
Speaker 1: things on their own without coaches supervision. Sheldon hyper extended Disney.
Speaker 1: Nothing crazy, nothing terrible, but just to give you guys
Speaker 1: context of what it all looks like and just based
Speaker 1: on what I googled. A hyper extended knee. Typically the
Speaker 1: recovery time is two to four weeks if it's a
Speaker 1: mild strain. Moderate stream is six to twelve weeks, severe
Speaker 1: cases six to twelve months. Now, like I mentioned, because
Speaker 1: we don't know the severity of how this injury is,
Speaker 1: there's no timetable to know when Shelton Sampson may actually
Speaker 1: be back. The next time that coach Dez will be
Speaker 1: in front of a microphone will be on Tuesday of
Speaker 1: next week. They will left practice today here on Friday.
Speaker 1: I believe they practice again on Saturday, and I think
Speaker 1: they're off on Sunday, and then I think they have
Speaker 1: a closed practice on Monday. They practice Tuesday that afternoon,
Speaker 1: and we will talk to him earlier in the day,
Speaker 1: so I will be there and I will definitely be
Speaker 1: asking him, I was Sheldon Sampson progressing in his injury?
Speaker 2: What is the severity of it? Do you anticipate him.
Speaker 1: Being out through fall camp or will he be available
Speaker 1: for Week one if you had to anticipate now. I
Speaker 1: don't believe that this is going to be something that
Speaker 1: is going to keep him out long term. I really don't.
Speaker 1: This is just to be able to give us information
Speaker 1: on what is progressing as fall camp is going on.
Speaker 1: It's a major storyline. Last season, Sholdon Sampson was your
Speaker 1: leading receiver in all categories thirty two receptions, five hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty seven yards and six touchdowns with a long
Speaker 1: pass of forty five, averaging sixteen point eight per catch.
Speaker 1: So he was your big play receiver. He was all
Speaker 1: of what you needed last season and was a huge
Speaker 1: part of your offense and had really really good connections
Speaker 1: with Lunch Winfield there on the back half of the season.
Speaker 1: But it is just two days in the camp. They
Speaker 1: haven't touched pads yet, and buy all accounts what I've
Speaker 1: told you. If this is a mild strain in two weeks,
Speaker 1: you still have time before you play on September fifth
Speaker 1: against Lamar, so you have time for him to get healthy.
Speaker 1: This would be a lot more alarming if this was
Speaker 1: game week and he was in a Great Jersey that
Speaker 1: would be a little bit more alarming and if Dez
Speaker 1: was giving that type of answer. But that is the
Speaker 1: latest on what is happening with Sheldon Sampson. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going to step aside for just a quick second, and
Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll talk about some of the
Speaker 1: other receivers that are in the room at his particular position,
Speaker 1: what they will be getting the opportunities to see in practice,
Speaker 1: and how important it will be for them to get
Speaker 1: those reps. We'll discuss it when we come back here
Speaker 1: on Rage and Rundown. Hey, guys, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for tuning into another episode of Rage and Rundown. We're
Speaker 1: going to get back into the action in just a second,
Speaker 1: but before we do, if you are tuned into this
Speaker 1: episode on YouTube, please like the video, share it, and
Speaker 1: leave a comment down below. But most importantly, make sure
Speaker 1: you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening, please follow
Speaker 1: the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave us a
Speaker 1: review because that'll help us get in front of more
Speaker 1: raging Cajun fans just like yourself. So, with Sholdon Sampson
Speaker 1: being sidelined for the time being, the next question is
Speaker 1: who's the next man up and obviously, like I said,
Speaker 1: you don't have a game being played this Saturday, You're
Speaker 1: a couple more weeks away from the season. I think
Speaker 1: under thirty days at this point, so you have time
Speaker 1: for him to get healthy. I do want to make
Speaker 1: that clear. But in the meantime, you're gonna have other
Speaker 1: receivers that will be taking on reps that he would
Speaker 1: normally be assuming. So after I have looked back at
Speaker 1: some of the old depth charts from last season, Sheldon
Speaker 1: Sampson is considered your ex receiver, which is the receiver
Speaker 1: that lines up on the line of scrimmage in the offense,
Speaker 1: typically your number one receiver, and then you have a
Speaker 1: zero receiver who's lined up off the ball on the
Speaker 1: opposite side in behind Shelton. On the week one depth
Speaker 1: chart of what you had were two receivers, Landon Baptists
Speaker 1: and Cadarius Weide. Both of those guys will be entering
Speaker 1: their red shirt junior seasons, meaning they have been a
Speaker 1: part of this program going into their fourth season. Landon
Speaker 1: is a former quarterback at South Side of High School.
Speaker 1: I covered him in high school.
Speaker 2: Last season.
Speaker 1: He was six foot, three hundred and seventy nine pounds
Speaker 1: on the current roster if I can get it pulled
Speaker 1: up really quick to see if he is a if
Speaker 1: he's put on any weight, or if he's grown any taller.
Speaker 1: They have n't listed at sixty four, one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty pounds redshirt junior. Like I mentioned, Cadarius weighed six
Speaker 1: foot four, two hundred pounds receiver. So those are the
Speaker 1: two guys that will be assuming that role at the
Speaker 1: ex position while Shelton Sampson is sidelined. It's going to
Speaker 1: be truly important for these guys to continue to get
Speaker 1: these reps. Number one, because the more reps you get,
Speaker 1: the better off that you have an opportunity to showcase
Speaker 1: your talents on game day. And number two, Louisiana doesn't
Speaker 1: have the type of offense where Shelton is gonna get
Speaker 1: twenty targets a game and thirteen receptions like they've always
Speaker 1: spread the football around. Obviously they are a run first offense,
Speaker 1: but when they are throwing the football, it's not just
Speaker 1: the one guy. It is across the way. It's with
Speaker 1: jet sweeps, across the way, it's you know, now even
Speaker 1: more so with tunnel screens and bubble screens and throwing
Speaker 1: to the tight end, like they are spreading the football
Speaker 1: around very much. So like even to that point, after
Speaker 1: Shelton Sampson, you know he has had thirty two receptions.
Speaker 1: Your next receiver was Kayden Jensen with twenty nine. This
Speaker 1: is all coming from last season. After that, it was
Speaker 1: Rob Williams with twenty five receptions, z island Perry with sixteen,
Speaker 1: Charles Robertson with fifteen, Trey Miller with thirteen, Brock Chapel
Speaker 1: with twelve, Landon Struggler with ten, Bill Davis with ten.
Speaker 1: That's kind of how it was shaping up. Now, the
Speaker 1: two guys that I mentioned in Cadarius Wade and Landon Matisse,
Speaker 1: in their careers, they haven't had as much of an opportunity,
Speaker 1: mainly because they've been behind some really good receivers in
Speaker 1: their career. Last season, Landon had two catches for fifteen
Speaker 1: yards and a touchdown. I do believe at one point
Speaker 1: he got injured and was then out for the year,
Speaker 1: so that also factors into this. And then for Cadarius,
Speaker 1: he had two receptions for twenty five yards with a
Speaker 1: long of nineteen yards. I believe that was in the
Speaker 1: McNeese game, so These are two guys that haven't had
Speaker 1: much of an opportunity to get burned in game, but
Speaker 1: now that they are in practice, they're going to have
Speaker 1: all the reps that they possibly can while Shelton Sampson
Speaker 1: is sidelined for the time being, so I'm sure that
Speaker 1: they will be trying to make the most of that opportunity.
Speaker 1: Just a little bit of some of the observations that
Speaker 1: I've been making in camp as well, there has been
Speaker 1: a lot of intensity early on in these practices. Coaches
Speaker 1: are emphasized that guys have to fly around. They are
Speaker 1: you know, pushing the younger guys to make sure that
Speaker 1: they're executing in the individual drills because obviously what we're
Speaker 1: seeing isn't a whole lot of contact seven on seven
Speaker 1: type of football. A lot of it is routes on air.
Speaker 1: You know, offensive linemen hitting the sleds, defensive backs doing
Speaker 1: back pedaling drills, and you know, catching interceptions through the air.
Speaker 1: Drills of that nature. But coaches are emphasizing, like, let's
Speaker 1: fly around, let's make sure that we are doing the
Speaker 1: most that we can. And they're not just emphasizing it
Speaker 1: to the young guys. It's across the board. If you know,
Speaker 1: coach Salgado was mentioning too. I think he was coaching
Speaker 1: up Cody Jackson if I remember correctly, yesterday. And this
Speaker 1: is not to call out Cody. This is just something
Speaker 1: I'm remembering off the top of my head, and he
Speaker 1: was talking about something in the drill and he was like,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna do it, let's let's go full speed,
Speaker 1: Let's go all the way with how we're going to
Speaker 1: present things. And so the intensity has been high. The
Speaker 1: coaching staff has been demanding in what they want to
Speaker 1: see from the players, making sure that they're executing things
Speaker 1: correctly so that it will translate into eleven on eleven drills,
Speaker 1: seven on seven drills, and ultimately.
Speaker 2: To game day.
Speaker 1: The way that the individual drills have been going. On
Speaker 1: the offensive side of things, the receivers will go down
Speaker 1: to the far end of where they're practicing on the field.
Speaker 1: They'll do rug routes and be catching passes, and then
Speaker 1: the tight ends and offensive linemen typically are doing combo blocks,
Speaker 1: so like the offensive tackle and the tight end are
Speaker 1: working zone blocking schemes, so they're doing that, and then
Speaker 1: the tight ends will move over and they'll work other
Speaker 1: things Eventually they work their ways into doing routes on
Speaker 1: air with the quarterbacks. The quarterbacks are doing mesh drills
Speaker 1: with the running backs, and then towards the back half
Speaker 1: of that, the quarterbacks are throwing routes to both the
Speaker 1: receivers and the tight ends. So they're working all these
Speaker 1: different things interchangeably together, and from what we have seen,
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks are making good connections with all receivers and
Speaker 1: the receivers are hauling those passes in. I remember getting
Speaker 1: a clip of video, which I don't know if Anthony
Speaker 1: Council posted it on his socials, but I do remember
Speaker 1: getting a clip of video where I believe it was
Speaker 1: Lunch that threw a high pass across the middle because
Speaker 1: they were driving into the end zone. They were working
Speaker 1: red zone passes, they were throwing it into the end zone.
Speaker 1: He threw one up to Jason Johnson. He went up
Speaker 1: and got it kind of pirouetted in the air and
Speaker 1: was able to haul it in. He had to go
Speaker 1: outside of his range a little bit to go and
Speaker 1: get the football. So there weren't a ton of drops
Speaker 1: from what I remember seeing, and they were running really
Speaker 1: really crisp routes from top to bottom the ones, twos, threes, four,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. That includes kadarious way, that
Speaker 1: includes landa beatis And in fact, now that I think
Speaker 1: about it, I remember also seeing him run a route.
Speaker 1: It might have been a corner route or a streak
Speaker 1: to the corner the inZone. I remember him catching it
Speaker 1: over the shoulder and getting coached up saying, you know,
Speaker 1: a really good job, and things of that nature. So
Speaker 1: these are gonna be guys like I mentioned, that are
Speaker 1: going to get this opportunity with Shelton not practicing right now,
Speaker 1: and it'll be interesting to see how they seize the opportunity.
Speaker 1: When Sheldon comes back, he's gonna assume the role. He's
Speaker 1: gonna have to work his way back into it to
Speaker 1: make sure that he doesn't reaggravate that injury. But it'll
Speaker 1: be important to have these guys getting those rips for
Speaker 1: depth reasons. Hey, maybe Shelton needs a breather and it's
Speaker 1: third and five and you need a guy that's out
Speaker 1: there still that there's no drop off whenever you take
Speaker 1: your main guy out and you put in the two
Speaker 1: receiver or the number two on the depth chart receiver.
Speaker 1: So that's how things stand as of now, Sheldon Sampson
Speaker 1: is currently not practicing. I've instructed Anthony to check and
Speaker 1: see if he will be practicing today. I do not
Speaker 1: predict that he will be because unless there's just been
Speaker 1: some crazy progress over the last twenty four hours since
Speaker 1: that Q and A has been has happened, and also
Speaker 1: since their last practice, which you get in practice, then
Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon, I'm not expecting him to be practicing. But
Speaker 1: like I said on Tuesday, when Coach Dez is in
Speaker 1: front of a microphone again, I'll ask him the latest
Speaker 1: about that to try to get a little bit more
Speaker 1: clarity about the severity of the injury and maybe how
Speaker 1: the timetable will shape out any further for Sheldon Sampson.
Speaker 1: So that's going to wrap up another episode of Rage
Speaker 1: and Rundown. If you've made it to this point in
Speaker 1: the episode, thank you so much. If you're watching on YouTube,
Speaker 1: please do me a favorite. Please like this video, share
Speaker 1: it and leave a comment down below, but most importantly,
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening,
Speaker 1: please follow the podcast feed or rate the show and
Speaker 1: leave us a review, because that's going to help us
Speaker 1: get in front of more raging Cajun fans, just like yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm your guy, JaMarcus Fitzpatrick. We'll see you guys next time.