BRYAN, Texas (KRHD — It’s the first padded practice of the season for the Rams and their annual Midnight Madness tradition adds another element of excitement to preseason camp.
“I think Midnight Madness is a fun tradition,” senior Rusty Ly-McMurray said. “I like being there with my friends. It's a good team bonding experience and it's fun to get out there at midnight. you know, when no one else is doing it, going out there putting on your pads, hitting each other for the first time. It's a really fun experience.”
And if they’re at all tired before heading out to practice – that first hit will wake you up fast.
“Oh, yeah, you'll immediately get an adrenaline spike for sure,” junior Logan Perez said. “But yeah, it'll be fun.”
The Rams graduated some major offensive weapons in Ethan Lucas and Eli Dawson but they’ve got some underclassmen who are ready to step up and take on bigger roles.
“We're probably going to do things a little bit different on offense,” head coach Adrian Adams said. “Still like our scheme of things just maybe not as much tight end sets a lot more, multiple receivers, multiple guys in the backfield. We're just going to do things a little bit different, losing that senior class that we have, but we have some playmakers that can still get some things done the way we want to.”
Sophomore quarterback Sawyer Marriott will take over under center this season and his teammates are excited to see what he’s able to do after spending a year learning from Lucas.
“Hopefully we'll get him a lot of experience so he can start slinging the ball around some more to our more experienced wide receivers,” Ly-McMurray said.
“He’s going to grow throughout the season,” Perez said. “I think he'll become a great leader because last year he was put with the senior quarterback. He learned a lot from him and a lot of leadership values from him”
Ly-McMurray – the Swiss army knife for the Rams – has made an impact on the field since his freshman year but now as he enters his senior season – his leadership will mean even more.
“What he’s really going to help us with is the leadership aspect with our younger guys, our sophomore class because they're going to be learning on the fly a lot in game,” Adams said. “He can help them with film, study, playbook, those type of things, doing what they're supposed to do, nutrition wise, helping them in the classroom. All those things are going to be huge.”
And after an early exit from the postseason in 2023 – the Rams begin writing “Chapter 24” with a new motto – “Show up and show out”
“Last year, after several games, the guys will come in and say we didn't show up, you know, we had a game, but we didn't show up and play the way we can play,” Adams said. “So we went with that saying, ‘okay, we're going to show up and we're going to show out.’ We're going to showcase and play the best we can play every Friday night. We owe that to our fan community, our school and as much work as our kids have put in, we want them to show out on Friday night”
“Showing up every single day, showing up to practice, showing up to film, study, whatever we're supposed to be doing, you know, even in the classroom because that's also important,” Ly-McMurray said. “Just showing up and giving your all is really what's going to propel us throughout the season.”
The lights are on, the pads are on and the Rams are ready to go – they’ll open up the season at home on August 30th, hosting Baytown Christian. Kickoff is set for 7:30pm at Baker Field.
