For junior running back Alvin Kamara, spring break meant a trip to Miami – not so much to hit the beaches – but rather to workout with one of the NFL’s best, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, a former pupil of Butch Jones and Zach Azzanni at Central Michigan.
“It’s like Alvin going down to Miami – I get a text message and there’s him and Antonio Brown together,” Jones said after practice on Tuesday. “To me that’s an exciting thing to see these players grow and try to elevate their game when they have time off.”
Joshua Dobbs mixed in some history on his trip to California along with some working out and other spring break adventures.
“They have the Air Force One that President Reagan flew on and my mom found out about it and it was an hour from where we stayed,” the senior quarterback said. “My dad talked about it and Reagan was one of his favorite presidents. They had everything from his childhood to his acting career and sports he played in high school; it was really good knowledge.”
“It was very rewarding for me being away from them for spring break and the inordinate amount of videos and text messages and videos sent to me of them working out on their own,” Jones added. “A number of individuals ventured off in difference places to workout over the spring. To me that’s the maturity of the football team.”
So while this scattered spring break seemed to be relatively successful, Jones said he wouldn’t mind changing it up in the future and taking the team on the road, perhaps following the path that Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh blazed this offseason when he packed up his team and headed to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., for a week of controversial spring practice during Michigan’s spring break.
That led to some some Twitter trolling from Jones, Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio, before Harbaugh snapped back at Jones earlier this month.
“Well, we’re working on trying to go somewhere for spring practice,” Jones said on Tuesday. When asked where, Jones briefly paused: “Do a state of Tennessee tour,” he said, playing it a bit safe.
You never know how Harbaugh would respond, after all.
