GRAMBLING, La. -- With football season approaching Grambling
State coach Melvin Spears wants to look svelte on the sidelines.
Grambling quarterback Bruce Eugene wants to make sure he is not
on the sidelines.
So they both went on diets.
Eugene is on diet that restricts him to 1,800 calories per day.
And Spears, who has for years taken hour-long walks with his
prot Deg De, is step for step with the diet as well.
"Sometimes, you have to serve as the example," Spears said.
"I talked the talk. I'm going to show him I can walk the walk as
well. When you want to look good, you have to pay a price."
Eugene, who has a surgically repaired knee, has one last season
to convince NFL scouts he can play at that level. The scouts might
not have liked that weight before, they definitely don't want to
see it on that knee now.
Over the years, watching the numbers on the scale go up and down
for "The Round Mound of Touchdown" has always caused as much
speculation as watching the numbers on his career tally rise (8,953
yards, 84 touchdowns through the air and 1,050 yards and 16 TDS on
the ground).
"All the scouts want to know is how much has he dropped,"
Eugene said. "I'll continue to lose weight. And my chances should
be high. I feel as though, if I take care of my weight, everything
else will take care of itself."
Eugene, listed at 6-foot-1, 260 pounds, said he was up to 308
pounds at graduation in May Friday he said he's around 272 and
wants to be around 250, 240 by the time the season starts.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://www.theadvocate.com