Broncbusters open fall camp

Courtesy of GCCC

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-For the first time in more than a decade, Tom Minnick opened a fall camp in a place other than Yuma, AZ.

On Thursday, Garden City officially began defense of their 2018 Jayhawk Conference title, starting preparations for their week-one tilt with Snow on Aug. 24.  

“The weather has been great,” Minnick said with a big smile. “But the challenge is going to be when we go to afternoon practices on Saturday. That’s going to be different.”

The most noticeable difference on day one this year compared to 2018 was the guy under center. Gone is David Moore, the one-time Memphis transfer who is now at Central Michigan. The man replacing him is 6-9 Nate Cox, a Louisiana-Tech transfer who will have no problem seeing the entire field.

“Nate made some really good throws today,” Minnick said. “But he also missed some. It’s a process.”

Interesting to note is that last year Moore didn’t arrive on campus until Aug. 25. Cox has already digested the entire playbook, which should make a huge difference. Of course, the 2018 Broncbusters only threw the ball one time in their season-opening win over Dodge City.

Other sightings from day one included Cox’s new favorite target on the perimeter, four-star wide receiver Dominick Watt, who made a few slick catches along the sideline.

“I think Dominick has a chance to be one of the best receivers in the country,” Minnick explained. “It’s early, so you never know how things will pan out. But he’s legit. He just didn’t have a lot of opportunities last year because of the style of offense.”

While Minnick is more stoic in nature, new defensive coordinator Jerry Dominguez is a ball of fire and energy. Of course his track record is pretty hard to match, constructing a defense at Arizona Western that was one of the best in the nation year in and year out while playing in the National Championship Game three times.

“Once we put the pads on, our defense will be ahead of our offense,” Minnick said. “But that’s to be expected.”

That defense will get a huge boost in the secondary from returner Kenny White and newcomer Zihir Lacewell , who transferred in from Rutgers.

“Jerry has done a great job with these guys,” Minnick said.