University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Time To Weigh In
8/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, August 9, 2010, 11:01 a.m.
It's not quite like a heavyweight fight weigh-in, but with everyone checked in and accounted for, it's time to unveil the weights for the football team. The roster is undergoing the changes and will reflect those by the end of the day, but here are a few of the highlights.
The Good
Brandon Akpunku- 226 to 240. AK looks incredible. He's filled out nicely and might be the most polished athlete on the team right now. I don't however think he's going to add much more to his frame, he's right about where he needs to be.
Shavod Atkinson- 307 to 284. I like this, Atkinson shed 23 pounds and I think it's better for him. Yes you want the big uglies to be fat, but not so much so that they can't move. This will give Atkinson the ability to move around and have more speed up front, while still not surrendering that much size. 284 is still big.
K. C. Obi- 214 to 240- Much like AK, Obi hit the weight room and it's paying off. His frame is a little bigger than AK's so there's room to grow, but his added strength and weight will in the trenches.
Jeremy Phillips- 198 to 212- This was an easy one to see coming. After sliding down to the linebacker spot, Phillips needed to get bigger and he did. The good part with Phillips is he can get bigger, but at the same time I didn't want to see him come in and pack on 30 pounds in less than a year. He needs to slowly build up, get used to playing with the extra weight, and go from there. This is a nice start.
Nathan Tune- 206 to 226- Always a string bean at 6-4, but he's bulked up quite a bit this year. The added 20 pounds is a good thing, he needed to add some weight to handle the extra punishment he will get at the QB spot be it running the ball or by just being a QB. I don't forsee this slowing Nathan down any either, he's never been the fastest guy to start with.
The Bad
Tevinn Cantly- 301 to 336- You want your d-lineman to get bigger, but probably not this big. The good news for Cantly is he can shed about 15-20 of those pounds in about a week during 2-a-days. The bad news is you hope this won't slow him down or affect his ability to get into the mix at the d-line spot, which is already a critical position. He still moves very well and is athletic for his size, so it will be interesting to see how the increased weight affects him.
Draylen Ross- 292 to 292- I'm questioning the scales on this one because Draylen, by my woeful vision, certainly has passed the eye test. A lot of the talk coming out of the spring was he needs to drop 10-15 pounds. He looks leaner and smaller, but according to the scales he isn't. One theory is that he put on a few extra pounds for the beginning of two-a-days because he knew that he would shed some weight over the next three weeks. I think though Ross transferred some of the extra bulk into the right places this spring and summer because he looks like he's in the best shape of his playing career.
