Rice Owl commit Josh Skinner was on the Rice campus this week. He stopped by the Rice Football offices to visit with Head Coach David Bailiff. He ended up staying for over an hour.
What did they talk about?
"Oh a little bit of everything. Coach Bailiff is real easy to talk to. I feel really good about my committment to Rice. I think Coach Bailiff has a plan here that's going to be successful. He and the rest of the coaches really treat the (Rice) players like people - not just numbers in a program."
Skinner was the first commit of the 2009 class and has been working out hard ever since his announcement. When we talked last night he told me about his daily workout regimen. "My routine is from about 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every day.
I usually get up and do my baseball stuff first. Then later I lift and do my running."
Josh told me he currently weighs 234 pounds.
He's playing summer baseball for the Columbia Angels. The big lefty is 2-0 early on.
It was during our discussion about baseball when Josh mentioned that "a friend of his had committed."
"I was excited to hear that Nic Hammett committed. He's a real good Catcher and we've played on tournament teams before. He's caught some of my games before."
He also said Nic was a real big guy and a good athlete. We talked a little about the rest of his classmates and he told me he had read about them right here on Owl Digest.
"I think we're going to have a great class coming in. The linemen look real good. I'm excited to get in on the ground floor here. I think the program is definitely on the way up."