GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum College junior punter John Gregory will be providing a daily blog during the Pioneers' journey in the NCAA Division II Football Playoffs.

Gregory, a Sports Management major from Ooltewah, Tenn., is a three-time All-South Atlantic Conference honoree and has been twice named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team.

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Today was once again our special teams focus practice. Just before we went outside, we all met in the locker room to watch Delta State's special teams film. Once again, Coach DeBusk stressed to the team the importance of dominating the special teams aspect of the football game. He said that in tight games, the team who can win on special teams is the team who is going to come out on top.

Today was a great day for our specialist to knock the rust off a bit since we have practiced in the indoor facility most of the week. I'll have to admit, I'm glad that it was nice out so we could get our reps in, because I would not have felt comfortable heading to Delta State otherwise.

After practice concluded, the coaching staff talked a bit to us about getting our drivers licenses to them so that nobody would forget them tomorrow and not be able to fly. We then went over what tomorrow's schedule is going to look like and went to the equipment room to get our game materials.

The team seems extremely focused for the game and very anxious to get on the airplane Friday. I am sure that it will be interesting to see some of these big guys react when they liftoff for the very first time. I am just hoping that all of our traveling arrangements do not get in the way of our task at hand. We are traveling all the way to Cleveland, Miss. for a victory against Delta State University.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Another freezing cold day and another warm practice in the indoor facility. I am starting to entertain the idea of practicing indoors every day. Today was extremely focused on the whole. The players are getting a bit of confidence in themselves after reviewing Delta State's film and seeing their offensive and defensive schemes. Our coaches are more talkative now than they have ever been, and our guys are soaking in every word. I believe that, if we maintain this level of focus and concentration, we will be able to shock Super Region 2 and NCAA Division II by upsetting #1 seeded Delta State University. There is no doubt that they are going to be our toughest opponent to date, but we are a style of opponent that they have yet to see. This game will be a battle of execution and adjustments and I believe that our coaching staff is going to put us in a position to win the game.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Today was brutally cold, and thankfully, Coach DeBusk brought us inside for practice. Since the forecast for Saturday is sunny and about 50º F, I guess he doesn't see any need to freeze at practice. Being in the indoor practice facility, we get much more work accomplished and are able to focus much easier. Today was one of our "work" days and both sides of the ball made big strides from last week's performance. This game should be very interesting to watch because both teams run very similar offenses and defenses. I guess you can attribute that "coincidence" to our coaching relations.

As far as our special teams go, not much kicking is ever done while indoors, but all of our schemes are looked over. You can never underestimate the importance of a good speci