Pads Are Popping For Laramie Football [VIDEO]

The end of week one in preseason football practice for the Laramie Plainsmen meant full pads were donned on Thursday and Friday. One goal for head coach Jake Chick is to be a more physical football team in his second season. With the amount of experience returning combined with a knowledge base built last year, Laramie feels they can take that step.

As expected, players are sore and a bit banged up after the first few full-padded practices. Coach Chick called that a pretty normal first week.

“It was a good thing coming out of practice on Thursday because we got to see good on good (in reps), as our scout is not as significant of a drop off at this point (compared to the past). People are competing for jobs, and so you don’t get to just run over a non-competitor right now. You get to play against people who will be playing on Friday nights.”

KOWB’s David Settle caught up with senior Tyler Gale and junior Dax Beidleman between the two morning sessions on Friday to get their outlook on fall camp. Gale’s been hampered by injuries in his career, but he feels good about how the team has responded to full pads, describes how he’s living in the moment, fighting through the bumps and bruises of practice, and continuing to build on each practice. Beidleman added that camp feels different compared to a year ago and that this team has a lot to offer in the upcoming season.

Chick feels there’s a buzz in the air with this year’s team.

“We can see the experience we had from a year ago. Whether you want to call it injured experience or young experience, at this point, it’s all coming back as a much older version of experience. Year two of them getting used to us, it’s really smooth right now. The coaches can coach on the fly and do not have to stop and break things down.”

Gameday is two weeks away. Laramie opens the 2025 season at home against Cheyenne East at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 29. Chick says they’ll start to get into more game-mentality preparation over the next week.