LJ FB: Vikes to leave for Fall Camp

New LJ safeties coach Eric Burrell (R), a former

NFL Saint player, gives junior Carson Diehl

the soul shake before the Vikes' second game

in the UCLA passing league tournament

June 23. (Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Even though the school website indicated official practice would begin at 7 a.m. this morning (Thurs., Aug. 1), the Viking football team begins workouts in the afternoon--5:30 to 7 p.m.--then leaves for Fall Camp at Big Bear tomorrow, Fri., Aug. 2 after a 7 a.m. workout.

Head coach Tyler Roach's squad, in his eighth year at the helm, is seeking to build on a strong summer in which new junior starting quarterback Hudson Smith and gang competed in the UCLA passing tournament June 23--something the program has never participated in--following a two-day jaunt in the SDSU 7-on-7 tourney the week before.

Roach, as Offensive Coordinator as well, has elevated a new counterpart to the Defensive Coordinator position on the other side of the ball, Brandon Harrison, the former safeties coach. Ryan Price, last year's DC and former head coach at University City, is now head coach at Point Loma, one of La Jolla's Eastern League rivals.

The head coach also added former NFL player Eric Burrell to the coach staff over the summer. Burrell played for the New Orleans Saints. He takes Harrison's place coaching the safeties.

Rising sophomore Nico Bardaro takes in a short

completion from QB Hudson Smith at the beginning

of the Vikings' first game in the UCLA tourney

June 23.