University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
FROM HATTIESBURG TO HAMBURG
3/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 27, 2007
During the 2007 NFL Europa season, SouthernMiss.com will bring you exclusive insight into former Golden Eagle football player Jeremy Parquet's travels overseas as a member of the Hamburg Sea Devils of NFL Europa as he checks in weekly with former Southern Miss alumni, Joe Trahan, who will also be in Germany covering the team and Parquet.
March 28, 2007
Here we are in week two of training camp. Last week we had a scrimmage against the Cologne Centurions and Rhein Fire, and the scrimmages went well. It was the first time for me and my team to hit someone else, and I enjoyed that a lot.
The whole experience thus far has been good, as I've been in Tampa for almost two weeks now. We have a scrimmage (third out of four combined practices/scrimmages within all NFL Europa teams) today against the Berlin Thunder, then we have practice twice on Thursday, once on Friday and then our final scrimmage on Saturday and then we're off until we leave on Wednesday (April 4) to head over to Hamburg, Germany. I'm kind of anxious and excited to leave the country because it's my first time to be away from the United States.
With the Sea Devils as a team, I have to say that we're not where we need to be right now, but we're headed that way as far as the o-line coming together as one unit. It takes a little bit longer for an offense to come together, where with the defense if 10 players mess up and one player makes a great play - it's a great play. But on offense, if 10 players do the right assignment well and one player messes up - it's a horrible play. The offense is finally getting a chance to get to know each other because it's hard to come from all over the country and different backgrounds and all of a sudden come together that fast. But after two weeks, everything is working together.
Last week I was frustrated with the offense not clicking as fast as I wanted to, but being together for another week has made the offense better. In our scrimmage tomorrow against Berlin I'll get to go against (former Golden Eagle safety) Etric Pruitt, and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm not going to say much to him on the field because I'm going to try to take his head off when I see him!
Last week we scrimmaged against Cologne and I got to play against (former Golden Eagle defensive tackle) Tom Johnson. I played with Tom for one year at Southern Miss when I was a senior and he was a junior, and seeing him grow as a player now is really exciting. I think he ended up with a sack and a half in that scrimmage, which was bad for our o-line but good for him.
On a personal note, my wife and child came into town last Tuesday and are leaving me in the morning to go back to Mississippi. It's been fun having them here. My little boy Jeremiah has grown a whole lot. Jeremiah is four months old now and was born November 7, 2006, and right now he's 27 inches long and 19 pounds. He's doing all kind of crazy things now like trying to talk, so it's real exciting.
Overall, I'm just ready to go. We have one week left in the United States, so the next time I talk to you guys I will be in Hamburg.
