[media-credit name=”Yong Kim Philadelphia Daily News/MCT Campus” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin tries to score against Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Keenan Lewis during the first quarter Oct. 7, 2012, in Pittsburgh.

The NFL’s preseason is usually used to find out who will make the team, but for the Philadelphia Eagles it will determine a lot more than that.

The Eagles will send out an almost entirely new coaching staff this season. Although this may be exciting, new coaching presents two different schemes.

Head coach Chip Kelly is bringing a new offense to the Eagles. Kelly, who coached at the University of Oregon before he took the helm in Philadelphia, is known for his high-paced and explosive spread offense, and he will try to instill this up-tempo scheme in the NFL.

The Eagles also have to worry about the NFL’s referees, as the officials are worried that they will not be able to keep up with Kelly’s offense. But this does not phase Kelly, who said he will go as fast as the refs allow him.

“If the speed limit is 65, even though I want to go 85, if there’s a cop out there, I’m not going 85,” Kelly said. “It’s a real simple concept.”

There are still many offensive questions for the Birds, who had an NFL-high 37 turnovers last season. The most public position battle is between quarterbacks Michael Vick and Nick Foles. Kelly announced Aug. 8 that Vick will start the preseason opener Aug. 9 against the New England Patriots and that Foles will start the next preseason game Aug. 15 against the Carolina Panthers.

“It was Mike’s day in the rotation; that was the easiest way for us to do it, and then we’ll make sure the rotation works out that Nick will get the start next week,” Kelly said. “The two of those guys, we feel like we’ve got it balanced out. We met with those guys this morning. They were great with it, so that’s kind of our plan going in.”

The Eagles also lost their 2012 leading receiver, Jeremy Maclin, to an ACL tear earlier in training camp. Because of this, they will be looking for a reliable No. 2 receiver behind DeSean Jackson. Jason Avant is the early favorite, but one of the top contenders is Riley Cooper, who just returned to training camp after a video of him saying a racial slur went viral.

Philadelphia is looking at a couple young rookies who will make some noise during the preseason. One of those young receivers is the 6-foot-7-inch athletic marvel Ifeanyi Momah. Tight end Zack Ertz, who was the team’s second pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, is another.

Many Eagles veterans are excited to get on the field and show off their new offense in their preseason debut. Reporters asked Jason Peters, a 10-year veteran and starting offensive tackle, to summarize the offense in one word.

“Fastball,” Peters said. “That’s all I can say — fastball. Come watch us on Sundays, and it’s going to be definitely different.”

The defense for the Eagles also struggled often last season. The Birds gave up 27.8 points per game, which tied them for third-worst in the league. Philadelphia intercepted only eight passes, which was second-worst in the league.

In order to improve, new defensive coordinator Billy Davis is bringing a brand-new scheme. Davis, who came from the Cleveland Browns last season, was also the defensive coordinator for both the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals in his career. He has been installing the 3-4 defense rather than the 4-3 that the Eagles ran for the last few seasons.

This new scheme aims to bring speed and confusion to offenses, something the Eagles lacked last season. The coaches may be new, but they all agree on one main thing: The staff is going to build the team with the best players, even if it does not fit the scheme perfectly.

“Like everything we’re doing, it’s got to be a personnel-driven deal,” Kelly said. “Let’s play to their strengths. We keep finding out every day when we get on the field what they do really well.”

This may be one of the most exciting preseasons the Eagles have had in many years. While most teams are looking at what players are going to be cut, the Eagles are looking for players who can contribute.

The post Eagles adapting to Kelly’s new spread offense appeared first on The Triangle.

[media-credit name=”Harry E. Walker MCT Campus” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles is chased and sacked by Washington Redskins inside linebacker Perry Riley at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., Nov. 18, 2012.

The 2013 Philadelphia Eagles are looking to pick up the pieces of the puzzle that were missing last season. The team’s four wins in 2012 were the franchise’s lowest season total since 1998, and heading into training camp, the Eagles are still missing a very important piece of that puzzle: a starting quarterback.

The quarterback battle is between Michael Vick, Nick Foles and rookie Matt Barkley. Barkley is taking the second-team reps while Vick and Foles, who both started at times for the Eagles last season, are currently splitting first-team reps. Vick, who has been the starter for much of his career in Philadelphia, is not too happy about that.

“It’s tough, I have to continue to be a professional and put my feelings and emotions to the side and just continue to compete,” Vick said to Philly.com. “But it’s hard. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t. That’s just what I have to deal with, and I’m going to keep dealing with it.”

On the other hand, Foles has been battling for the starting spot since the Eagles drafted him in 2012.

“What does me worrying about where I am on the pecking order really matter?” he asked rhetorically to Philly.com. “I don’t go to sleep at night sweating, wondering where I am.”

Foles continued, “What I can do is I can work hard, come out on the field and be a leader to these guys, execute the plays, and make the guys around me better.”

The major wild card is the rookie, Barkley, who was drafted in the fourth round this April out of the University of Southern California. He had a great career at USC and was considered by many to be a top-10 draft pick after his junior year.

Instead, Barkley chose to stay for his senior year to try and win a national championship. His dream fell short, however, as he and the Trojans struggled. The team finished with six losses, and Barkley threw twice as many interceptions as he did in the previous year.

Reports indicate that Barkley has been doing well this offseason. But even though he has been throwing great passes, he is going to have to prove more to the coaches before being named the starter.

“Some of the other things that are going to go into it, like having the toughness to stand in the pocket,” Eagles quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor said. “Some of those things don’t come out until the pads are on.”

Some of the players on the team expressed who they think will win the position by week 1 of the season. Most veterans on the team, such as wide receiver DeSean Jackson, predicted that Vick would win the battle.

But Chip Kelly is the new sheriff in town, and he has been shaking things up since his arrival in Philadelphia. Kelly has already shown that he is unconventional, which is why he makes not naming a starting quarterback seem like normal behavior.

“As I’ve said before with a big decision like that, you want to make sure you take the whole body of work into consideration,” Kelly said to Philly.com. “If in practice 2 they have a [bad] practice, do they come back in practice 3 and bounce back pretty good?”

The Eagles started training camp July 23, and you can bet that Kelly is examining the last piece of his puzzle very slowly and very intensely.

The post Who will win the Eagles QB job? appeared first on The Triangle.

[media-credit name=”Photo Courtesy Zach Makovsky” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky showcases his Bellator Bantamweight Championship belt that he won in 2010 when he defeated Ed West by
a unanimous decision. He now competes as a flyweight in Cage Fury Fighting Championships events.

Zach Makovsky has been the undersized underdog for most of his life, but like any true fighter, he loves every aspect of a challenge. The 5-foot-4-inch Makovsky goes by the nickname “Fun Size.” Don’t let his size fool you, though; he packs a very powerful punch and an exciting fighting style.

Makovsky has been a professional fighter since 2006 and currently holds a professional mixed martial arts record of 15 wins and four losses. However, his first encounter with the contact sport came when he was just 6 years old and weighed a whopping 48 pounds.

Makovsky was a solid youth and middle school wrestler out of Bethlehem, Pa. He then attended Bethlehem Catholic High School, where he never felt like he reached his full potential.

“I definitely didn’t have a stellar high school career; I would say I never took training too seriously until I got to college,” Makovsky said.

Although he never qualified for the Pennsylvania state tournament in high school, Makovsky’s love for competition made him want to try his hand in Division I college wrestling.

“I was invited to walk on the team at Drexel University, [where] the level of the competition and training jumped dramatically,” Makovsky said. “If I was going to keep up, I had to make some real changes.”

“Fun Size” improved his record each year he was at Drexel, even placing at the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.

“I ended up progressing a lot,” Makovsky said. “Even though I fell short of my ultimate goal of competing in the NCAA Division I National Tournament, I had some success, amassing 70-plus [career] wins and being captain my senior year.”

Makovsky was always intrigued by boxing and MMA. He first found his love by watching any MMA event he could.

“I discovered MMA by renting videos of early [Ultimate Fighting Championship] events and PrideFC events,” Makovsky said.

Then, when he came to Drexel, he found a place to keep in shape and practice his passion during the offseason.

“When I moved to Philadelphia for school, I quickly found the Philadelphia Fight Factory and began training there after wrestling season of my freshman year,” Makovsky said.

After graduation, “Fun Size” had his professional debut when he won his first fight by unanimous decision. He would go on to win his next fight as well, before he took on his first highly regarded opponent.

“I fought in New Jersey for a promotion called ‘Combat in the Cage,’” Makovsky explained. “After I won my first two fights, I then fought for their bantamweight title, defeating world Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Emerson Souza for the belt.”

After beating Souza, Makovsky was getting more respect by bigger promotions. He received a shot to fight Wilson Reis, who was the champion of EliteXC. Makovsky lost the fight by submission but was able to rebound with three straight wins after that.

“Fun Size” then went out of his comfort zone and moved up a weight class to 145 pounds to fight in Tokyo. Even though Makovsky lost to a bigger opponent, it was a learning experience and he was able to rebound just like after his previous loss.

“Fighting in Tokyo, Japan, was a great experience,” he said. “I returned to fight in New Jersey on a local show and then for M-1 and won both of those fights.”

Makovsky, then with a record of eight wins and two loses, got his first fight with one of the biggest MMA promotions, Bellator.

“Fun Size” won his first fight in Bellator, which qualified him for the first-ever Bellator Bantamweight Tournament. This was an eight-man single-elimination tournament.

“Bellator was the first promotion I got to really fight on a worldwide stage and have my fights televised,” Makovsky said.

Makovsky would win his next two fights, which put him in line to fight for the Bellator Bantamweight Championship against Ed West. He dominated the fight from the start and won the title by unanimous decision. He would go on to win two more fights as the bantamweight champion before hitting a tough stretch of opponents.

“Fun Size” eventually lost his belt to Eduardo Dantas, one of the most talented bantamweights in the world. He then lost another fight in December 2012 by a close decision. With back-to-back losses, Makovsky was then released by the promotion that once called him champion.

Makovsky was always a smaller fighter at the 135-pound bantamweight class, and he never had to cut a lot of weight for a fight. After fighting two much larger opponents, he decided to cut down to flyweight, which is 125 pounds, to give himself another chance to become a champion once again.

“I walk around at about 145 pounds, and the last three guys I fought at bantamweight walk around over 165,” Makovsky said. “I just felt that the sport was evolving and everyone was getting better and more scientific about cutting weight. If I wanted to compete at the highest levels, I had to evolve as well.”

The weight cut was something that Makovsky always planned to do, but Bellator did not have a flyweight division. After being released, Makovsky was quickly picked up by Cage Fury Fighting Championships. He made his CFFC and flyweight debut in May and defeated Claudio Ledesma.

The plan is now for “Fun Size” to take on CFFC champion Sean Santella, who is highly ranked in the flyweight division. Makovsky hopes to be able to fight the defending champion within the next two months. He has a few more goals before he even thinks about taking the gloves off.

“I am getting older and don’t know how much longer I have to compete,” Makovsky said. “I am doing everything I can to work my way to the UFC to compete in their flyweight division, [and] I think I will be there soon.”

And with those sentiments, Makovsky will take on his next professional challenge with the determination and graciousness that made him a champion once before.

The post Former Dragon wrestler in MMA appeared first on The Triangle.

The 2013 Philadelphia Phillies still have some of the stars from the 2008 World Series championship team, but right now they look like a different ballclub entirely. The veteran group has a record of 38-41 so far this season and is trailing the Atlanta Braves by seven games in the National League East as of June 26.

“If you’ve watched us all year long, you’ve seen the inconsistent part of it, and that’s kind of how we play,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told Stephen Pianovich of MLB.com.

Although the Phillies have been inconsistent, there are a few players who have still been shining. Veteran first baseman Ryan Howard, starting pitcher Cliff Lee and third basemen Michael Young have tried to lead the Phightin’ Phils in the right direction.

Howard has 41 RBI, and his current batting average is .272, which would be his highest mark since 2010. Lee has a record of 9-2 and an ERA of 2.51. Young has a team-leading batting average of .281.

The Phillies also have a surprising All-Star candidate in Domonic Brown. Brown is second in the National League with 20 home runs. The 26-year-old also boasts a .276 average with 54 RBI.

But some players can’t seem to get it together. Starting pitcher Cole Hamels has a record of 2-11 with an ERA of 4.58. The 11 losses for Hamels already ties him for a career high, and not the good kind.

Also, two-time Cy Young winner Roy Halladay had to stop his season early to have shoulder surgery. It is unclear when or if Halladay will come back this season.

Closer Jonathan Papelbon has been far from perfect this season. He has blown four saves so far, all since June 17, which already ties his number from 2012.

Former National League MVP Jimmy Rollins is having a down year for a batter who consistently bats first, second or third in the lineup. The shortstop is batting only .257 with 25 RBI and will need to contribute much more if the Phillies want to stay competitive.

Catcher Carlos Ruiz is finally coming back to form after serving his 25-game suspension and enduring injuries for much of the first half of the season. Ruiz is hitting .346 in seven games since coming back from the disabled list June 18.

The struggling Phillies have only held a winning record once so far this season. The good news for the Phillies is that it is only the halfway point.

“Our best opportunity to get right in the thick of this race is right now,” Young said to Pianovich. “We can’t sit there and wait until after the All-Star break.”

The Phillies will need to start making the necessary adjustments if they want a shot at a playoff bid.

“You have to start showing some signs right now, start generating momentum,” Young told Pianovich. “We’re right smack in the middle of the season now, so it’s time for us to hit the gas a little bit and get going.”

If Philadelphia still has a losing record come the All-Star break, you can almost guarantee that Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. will draw up some possible trades.

The Phillies have dug themselves into a hole this season, but they still have a chance to crawl out. If they can hang around the division lead come August, they may be able to make a late-season push.

Since last season, the Major League Baseball playoffs have included an additional wild-card spot, which increases Philadelphia’s chances of making the postseason.

The Phillies are underdogs to make the 2013 playoffs, but if any ballclub can pull off an October surprise, it’s the Phightin’ Phils.

The post Phillies just below .500 as midseason approaches appeared first on The Triangle.

Even though the Drexel squash program is only two years old, the Dragons finished in the top 25 in both the men’s and women’s rankings following the 2012-13 season.

The Drexel Dragons squash teams have not been around long, but they are knocking on the front door of being a top program in the nation. Drexel invited squash to become an official varsity sport in 2011. After two years, the women’s team finished with a ranking of 20th in the nation, and the men’s team finished 22nd.

A new program can only be successful if it brings in talent right off the bat. Head coach John White and his staff have done that the past two years, and this year is no different.

One of the players White is excited about for the men’s team is Canadian Michael Thompson.

“He will be a top-three player for us for the next few years,” White said of his incoming freshman. “Michael is a great addition to the men’s team.”

White again went out of the country to find the top talent. This time, though, he had to cross the Atlantic Ocean to find Noel Solomon of Sweden.

“[Solomon] will play in the top six and is another great addition to the team,” White said. “Our top six will be very competitive with the other top teams we play during the season.”

White also found three international players for the women’s team. Mary Fung-A-Fat of Guyana, Maria Diagama of Colombia and Elisa Money of Canada are all expected to make immediate impacts on the team.

“All of these three players will play in the top four or five on the team,” White said. “This will strengthen the women’s team dramatically.”

The men’s team is returning all of its players, which is one of the benefits to having a new program. However, White could not put the nail on the head for top returners for this team and gave the impression that competition for the top spot is wide open.

“All players that return fit and ready to play are key returners,” White said.

The women’s team is riding in the same boat as the men’s team.

“We are pretty fortunate that we did not lose any top players last season,” White said. “We did lose players that were great in captaining the team and giving their best to the program.”

Both Dragon teams had their fair shares of ups and downs. For instance, the men’s team had some close losses that haunted them later in the season.

“The men were very unlucky not to finish in the top 20. They had a lot of 5-4 losses during the season and also in the team championships,” White said. “Those losses made the team stronger, which will help us improve during the 2013-14 season.”

The women’s team vastly enhanced its performance from a season ago, and the College Squash Association took notice. The women’s team finished in the top 20 and was named the most improved team for the 2012-13 season.

The Drexel squash teams are looking to have a bright future ahead of them. By picking top talent from around the world, the coaching staff shows how much potential it sees in these teams.

“I’m very excited for the season to get underway, as we are bringing in some great recruits on both teams that will help strengthen the teams and give us the chance to get inside the top 16,” White said about his programs.

Even though it is the offseason, the coaches and players never stop improving on and off the court.

On the coaching side, White and his staff want to work on reaching out to potential future Dragons and keeping Drexel graduates in the loop.

“We are always working on the recruiting side for sure,” White said. “We also want [to keep in contact with] alumni, parents and all the followers of the squash program to let them know how we are doing and what our goals are for the upcoming season.”

As for the players, they know now what is expected of them if they want to break into the top 20.

“I would like to work on the team’s fitness and match play, but this is up to them [until] the start of the season. … Then the fun starts!” White said with a smirk.

The women’s and men’s teams will look to keep improving into the 2013-14 season. If the recruits live up to their potential and the players improve in the offseason, we could see both teams making a run for a top-16 ranking.

The post Squash team grabs international recruits appeared first on The Triangle.