Fall 2009 camp fires: Thoughts on Grambling defense, ‘Chillin’ Dillon’ no more

Grambling’s defense loses its two top tacklers in the Jeffery Jack and Keefe Hall, but seems to have worked seamlessly in replacing them.

Bruna Foster, a redshirt sophomore who has great size at 6-3, 195, has ably filled in at the rover spot. If he can play with some of Jack’s emotion, I don’t see a problem there. Meanwhile, the linebacking corps has experienced leadership in Cliff Exama, Lance Castleberry, Toby Mott and Gabriel Fleming — and is getting back Derrick Johnson from 2008’s season-ending knee injury.

There still remain, for third-year Grambling coach Rod Broadway, lingering questions about the interior defensive line — which is missing Melvin Matthews and Otis Young.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Broadway told me, as GSU wrapped up its first week of fall sessions. “We are far from being a good football team defensive — or offensively. You don’t expect to be in playing condition today, or to have game-type executiion this early. If we can find some guys inside, we can be OK.”

A group including Antoine Rogers and Charlie Brewer, the starters in last spring’s Black and Gold Game scrimmage, as well as Jihron Spencer and Jonathan Mitchell, has been working to replace Matthews and Young.

NO QUIT
As laid back as Greg Dillon has always seemed, the junior Grambling quarterback continues to show new flashes of fiery competitiveness this fall — barking orders, stepping in to assist with coaching, staying after practice to continue working.

The guy I used to call “Chillin’ Dillon,” now completely inhabiting his role as team leader, has returned with a sizzling intensity.

It’s a part of his game, despite his remarkable on-the-field ability, that was missing last year. Greg Dillon is finding his voice in the huddle.

“Our focus this fall,” Dillon was telling me the other day, with a steely-eyed resolve, “is to get better in our efforts. We need to all get on the same page. The focus is to work harder.”

GET IN THE GAME
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