FAMU football players give Coach Taylor good early impression

All summer Joe Taylor could only go on second-hand information about the condition of the players on the Florida A&M football team. Taylor finally got a close up Tuesday as the team began preseason workouts. Under a blistering mid-afternoon sun, the Rattlers ran the 40-yard dash, a shuffle over 20 yards and zig-zag runs through cones. They will return at 6 a.m. today for more testing before starting walk-through drills later in the day. Tuesday's start impressed Taylor.

"I thought there was a lot of energy," he said. "I don't know if we've had this amount of sub-4.5 (seconds) for a timing day since I've been here. Now we've just got to be able to get it transferred (onto the field)."

Taylor said he had an inkling before the team showed up there would be some impressive times. During the team's initial meeting, when each one of them had to stand up and tell about themselves, Taylor said, he noticed a physical improvement in more than half of the players. "For some of those guys when they took off their shirts their chest came with it," Taylor said, "but you could see evidence and signs that they've been working. They're really cut."

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