College Football Drills in Wintertime February 28, 2013
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: 06:00, 6 A.M., 6 AM, 6 AM's, ball, Clemson, coach, college, conditioning, Cup, directional, drills, football, Fulmer, Georgia, Jim Colletto, Joe Tiller, Mark Richt, mat, Mollenkopf, NCAA, North Texas, practice, puke, Purdue, spring, Sun Belt, winter
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We are still in the winter season, normally associated with basketball, wrestling (the non-pro kind!) and Winter Olympic-related sports. The Super Bowl has been concluded for almost a month by now, and the college football bowl games have been over for almost two. But do not think that nothing is going on in the world of college football; things are anything but sleepy in that world right now, and I don’t mean the latest developments in the Fulmer Cup, either!
The truth is, college football is very active right now, just not active in the way that ordinary fans, hard-core and casual alike, can readily see or discern. That is because fans do not see the tough conditioning drills that players put themselves through (scratch that, that COACHES put players through) during the week, often at very inconvenient times of day, to get them ready for Spring Ball.
Conditioning is the game, here. The NCAA restricts coaches to 15 spring practice sessions, so there’s no time to waste on gassers or the like when there’s plenty of schematic options to explore to see how they play out and to try to install new offensive stuff for the regular season come Fall.
That means that these boys need to be in shape for all of that. What is truly interesting is all the different approaches that coaching staffs take towards these conditioning sessions, starting with what their nomenclature. One generic, all-purpose term is “winter conditioning drills,” since they last from early February, usually, to early March, though that alone varies from program to program. Another term some teams use is “mat drills,” since some of the conditioning drills take place on wrestling mats or a similar playing surface. At Purdue, we just called them “6 AM’s”, since that’s when these drills officially began.
Six-AM’s are a royal pain in the ass. There, I said it. Some coaches seem to agree, with is why schools of thought differ even on this approach, since some programs WISELY undertake these conditioning sessions in the AFTERNOON (why, what a novel idea!). As disastrous a head coach as Jim Colletto was while at Purdue, one of the few bright spots during an otherwise dark time for the program was that he had said conditioning drills held in the afternoon, when normal people are still, you know, functional. Coach Joe Tiller, however, in a hasty move to — otherwise commendably — change the tone of the program (and goodness knows it needed a change of tone at the time) had them in the morning, hence the term at the beginning of this paragraph.
But Purdue is not the only one; many a program from UConn to USC has had these sessions at 06:00, for whatever reason. Luckily, there are voices of reason at big-time programs that still have them in the afternoon. Take Georgia, for example (this policy alone strengthens my faith in Mark Richt’s adept leadership):
FYI, those human-centipede push-ups are a lot harder than they look! Notice the presence of a red mat in the middle of the indoor practice field, though. We never used a mat for drills on the astroturf playing field of Mollenkopf Athletic Center (field turf was finally installed in there in 2006), which might account for the absence of the mat drill term within our organizational lexicon.
Still, another interesting thing to marvel is what sort of combination of drills the coaches prefer to get their players into shape. We never did the human-centipede push-up drill at Purdue, for example, but one constant one will find from program to program are all sorts of directional drills. Those are simply where the coaches have players run or side-shuffle in one direction then instantly turn to run in a different direction and so on. Players would go to various drill stations throughout the session and about four or five-minute intervals, and variations of directional drills were usually two out of several of said stations. Because two stories of staircases leading to the coaches’ offices were located close to the indoor field, another station was to have players run up and down said stairs — ensuring that endurance and power were covered!
Clemson is considered a big-time program, but sadly they still cling to the out-dated notion of having drills pre-dawn. North Texas, an inconsistent contender in the Sun Belt, also still have their sessions before sunrise.
Notice the good examples of directional drills show in the above video. The tug-of-war drill is no doubt a cool idea! Another constant one sees during these drills from program to program are the puke buckets. Part of the job of the managers are to set up these drills (meaning they must report around 5:30 AM), and part of the setting-up is placing those plastic, dark gray garbage cans in, er, strategic areas for players to conveniently access in the split second before they blow hash. On further review, one advantage to running before dawn is that one needs not to worry about losing one’s breakfast!
At Purdue, after the players were thoroughly worn out from all the drills, to cap things off, the coaches had them run 100-yard wind sprints repeatedly. After all of that, the session would not be completed until all the players on the team did positioning drills (lie on your back, the whistle blows, then you instantly switch to lying on your chest, etc.) to the coaches’ satisfaction. Doing these twice a week to start out seemed manageable. Three times a week and it wears considerably on you; but at four times a week, it pushes you towards the brink of insanity, and makes you jump for joy when it comes time for spring practices to commence. At least we could brag, though, that we practiced while [normal] people slept!
Addendum, 04-03-13: Yes, by now, spring practices are in full-swing all across the land, but I just came across a video of Purdue’s 6 AM drills for 2013, and naturally found that to be a great fit for the article — enjoy!
2012-2013 Bowl Games of Moderate Interest (at best) December 14, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: ACC, Air Force, Aloha, Armed Forces, Aztecs, B1G, Ball State, Bayou Bengals, BCS, Bearcats, Beef 'O' Brady's, Belk, Big 10, Big Easy, Big Ten, Big XII, Blue Devils, Bobcats, Bowl, Bowling Green, Bulldogs, BYU, C-USA, Cadillac Chrysler, Cardinals, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Colin Cowherd, college, conference, Cougars, Cyclones, David Cutcliffe, Duke, ESPN, Ethics, football, Fresno State, game, Georgia Tech, Golden Knights, Hawaii, Hokies, Idaho Potato, Independence, Iowa State, K-car, Liberty Bowl, Little Caesars, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisville, LSU, MAC, Meinecke Car Care, Michigan State, Military Bowl, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Mountain West, Mustangs, NCAA, Notre Dame, Ohio U, Pac-12, Poinsettia, Red Raiders, Rice, Russell Athletics, Rutgers, San Diego State, San Jose State, Scarlet Knights, SEC, SMU, Snow, Sun Belt, Sun Bowl, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, The Herd, Tigers, Toledo, Tommy Tuberville, triple option, Trojans, Tulsa, UCF, USC, Utah State, Virginia Tech, WAC, Western Kentucky, Yellow Jackets
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Bowl season is almost upon us once again. Yes, friends, things kickoff early as usual, just as they have since roughly 2001. But instead of the New Orleans Bowl doing the honors in getting things started this year, we have the New Mexico Bowl and the Idaho Potatoes Bowl (don’t laugh!) doing said honors this year. The Big Easy Bowl does not commence until Dec. 22, oddly enough.
In any event, I have ranked the bowl games by category, with the major criterion being level of desirability to view, partly on my end, partly on the end of the average viewer who is NOT a certifiable college football addict like yours truly!
The first installment is of bowl games about which I am only moderately interested, at best (all times Eastern Standard):
Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Id.), Sat., Dec. 15, 4:30 PM EST
Toledo (9-3) vs. No. 22 Utah State (10-2)
The de facto WAC champ takes on a respectable MAC team that finished 3rd in the western division. The only interesting aspect about this game is that it will be an interesting test to see how strong the MAC truly is against the best of what is seen by most as a traditionally weak conference.
Poinsettia Bowl (San Diego) Sat., Dec. 15, 8:00 PM EST
BYU (7-5) vs. San Diego State (9-3)
The Cougars take on the de facto leader of the Mountain West, in what amounts to a glorified home game for the Aztecs. Despite the numbers not matching, their records have interesting similarities in that both teams lost to at least one Pac-12 team, and both teams also lost to San Jose State (!).
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) Fri., Dec. 21, 7:30 PM EST
Ball State (9-3) vs. UCF (9-4)
Both the Cardinals and the Golden Knights have nearly identical records, with UCF’s extra loss coming to Tulsa in the C-USA championship game. The only interesting aspect to this game is how a MAC also-ran stacks up against the C-USA runner-up. Everybody was bullish on the MAC this year for the apparent strength the conference hath shewn; now it is time to put up or shut up.
Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu, Hi.) Dec. 24, 8:00 PM EST
Fresno State (9-3) vs. SMU (6-6)
This game used to have a little more of a mystique to it when it was called the Aloha Bowl, and was played on Christmas. Just sayin’! That said, it least this game is another glorified home game for Hawaii team, like it is half the time. A Mountain West also-ran vs. a C-USA team barely eligible does seem to be a slight mismatch in the Bulldogs favor. On the other hand, this will be an interesting homecoming for June Jones, albeit on the Mustangs side this time.
Little Caesars Bowl (Detroit), Wed., Dec. 26, 7:30 PM
Western Kentucky (7-5) vs. Central Michigan (6-6)
It used to be they would pit a middle-of-the-road Big Ten team against the MAC champ. Even then, the game was only moderately interesting, and only to the fan bases of the teams that got the bid to the Motor City. Now, with a Sun Belt Conference also-ran against a plodding MAC team, it is even less interesting. But credit the guys at EDSBS for reminding us that, given the game is in Detroit, the players, as a bonus, the players might get deeds to abandoned key real estate in their gift bags!
Military Bowl (Washington, D.C.), Thurs., Dec. 27, 3:00 PM
No. 24 San Jose State (10-2) vs. Bowling Green (8-4)
WAC near-champ vs. MAC also-ran: we know what ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd would say; “not interested!” Yes, the Trojans (the SJSU kind, not the USC kind) did take the WAC by storm this year, but it’s still the WAC.
Belk Bowl (Charlotte, N.C.), Thurs., Dec. 27, 6:30 PM
Cincinnati (9-3) vs. Duke (6-6)
A decent Big East team takes on a barely-eligible ACC team. That alone does not make most folks interested. So what in addition to that dismal matchup engages anybody? Answer: the intrigue. Who exactly will be coaching the Bearcats, anyhow? And how will David Cutcliffe prepare the Blue Devils for a bowl game that might actually be winnable for them?
Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.), Fri., Dec. 28, 2:00 PM
Ohio U (8-4) vs. Louisiana-Monroe (8-4)
Something negative, something positive to be said. The negative is obvious if one knows anything at all about bowl history. The Independence Bowl used to be one of the best matchups in the bowl lineup, pitting a Big XII team against an SEC team in a fairly even match. Even before then, the 1995 Michigan State – LSU matchup was memorable, and the 1997 match between the Tigers and Notre Dame was even more so (both ended in the Bayou Bengals’ favor). Remember the “Blizzard Bowl” between Mississippi State and Texas A&M in late 2000? ‘Twas yet another great example of this great bowl game. It is not anymore, though. Now it pits MAC vs. Sun Belt. The Cadillac has been reduced to a Chrysler K-car. Positive: lookee there, the Bobcats made it to a bowl game after all!
Russell Athletics Bowl (Orlando, Fla.), Fri., Dec. 28, 5:30 PM
Virginia Tech (6-6) vs. Rutgers (9-3)
The Hokies have under-performed all the year, and the Scarlet Knights might be a bit demoralized after losing at home to Louisville and losing out on the BCS in so doing. So which team is going to show up? Scratch that: is either team going to show up?
Meinecke Car Care Bowl (Houston), Fri., Dec. 28, 9:00 PM
Minnesota (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (7-5)
Okay, at least it involves a Big Ten vs. Big XII matchup. The only problem is, one team squeaked by into this game while in a conference that is down this year, and the other is facing leadership turmoil in the wake of Tommy Tuberville’s abrupt departure. On paper, the Red Raiders are the clear favorite, but don’t underestimate the power of demoralization.
Armed Forces Bowl (Ft. Worth, Texas), Sat., Dec. 29, 11:45 AM
Rice (6-6) vs Air Force (6-6)
Both teams squeaked into a bowl game. Which one is happier to be there? The happier team is a bit more focused on preparation, which will make the difference come game time. Seriously; it should be called the “Ethics Bowl,” and the fact that I imply derision in that observation is a very sad commentary on our society. On the other hand, Air Force’s triple option ‘grittitude’ is always a pleasure to see for those of us who like real football.
Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.), Mon., Dec. 31, 3:30 PM
Iowa State (6-6) vs. Tulsa (10-3)
The Cyclones have had some flashes of brilliance this year. The question becomes, will this be enough to overcome the C-USA champs?
Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas), Mon., Dec. 31, 2:00 PM
USC (7-5) vs Georgia Tech (6-7)
My bowl pick for “they shoot horses, don’t they?” Why? Because it is pointless. The Trojans come in to El Paso only 7-5 because they have yet to muster up the discipline needed to take things to the next level, while the Yellow Jackets already have a losing season. Still, the offensive contrast should be interesting to watch, if nothing else.
Next installment: Bowl Games of More Interest
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