A brand-new plan
Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/198851/
FAYETTEVILLE — These aren’t your father’s two-a-days.
What Arkansas has done in preseason football practice the past two weeks isn’t even two-adays at all.
“I think we’ve broken some new ground here,” Razorbacks Coach Houston Nutt said. “And I think we’ve done things the right way by not having what you’d call true two-a-days.”
A survey of the other 11 SEC schools revealed that all have had at least two days of two-aday practices outdoors, and some teams have had more.
Back when Nutt and his assistant coaches were playing in college, it was common for them to have two or more weeks of two practices a day in the preseason.
NCAA rules now limit the number of two-a-day practices, including prohibiting them for the first five days of camp and preventing teams from going twice a day on consecutive days.
Under the existing rules, the Razorbacks could have had four sessions of two-a-days before classes begin Monday. But on the days in which they were allowed to practice twice, including Friday, they went with one full-scale practice and had a walk-through, or “run-through” as Nutt preferred to call it.
The emphasis has been on quality work over quantity with a “less sometimes is more” philosophy.
Arkansas’ approach has been for the players to meet and go over what they’ll do in practice, then make sure they’re doing everything full speed when they get on the field.
“Coach is trying to take care of us and get the most out of us and keep everybody healthy and on the field,” Razorbacks senior linebacker Weston Dacus said. “There’s no use in sending 19 guys [to the hospital ] for an IV after practice.”
The weather, in which the heat and humidity often combine to exceed an index of 100 degrees, has influenced the preseason practice plan devised by Nutt and Dean Weber, Arkansas’ director of athletic training.
“It’s against tradition, but it’s common sense,” Weber said of not having two-a-day practices. “Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean it’s the right thing to do.”
In the past, teams used preseason practices to get players in shape, but now players at most schools work out all year.
NCAA rules forbid attendance being taken at summer workouts, but Arkansas strength and conditioning coach Don Decker estimated that about 95 percent of the team’s scholarship players were on campus and worked out at the team facilities.
Late in the summer on the same day the players lifted weights, they then ran 16 110-yard sprints with 45 seconds rest between, simulating game conditions.
“Everybody made their times,” Decker said. “I think that’s a great indication guys were in really, really good shape and ready to go for practice.
“ The feeling now is, ‘We’re in condition, let’s keep guys on the field and keep them healthy and fresh, because we’ve got a long season ahead.’”
Last season, Arkansas played 14 games, including the SEC Championship Game and a bowl appearance, and the Razorbacks hope to play 14 more this season.
But while the schedule has expanded, scholarships have been limited to 85, meaning there are fewer players for more games than there were in the past.
“In the long run, if you want to go 14 games and be strong in November, I feel good about how we’re doing things,” Nutt said. “I don’t think our guys are weak.”
Arkansas defensive coordinator Reggie Herring said players nowadays have “a pretty good deal” not having two-a-days for 14 days in a row.
“In our day when we played, we all sat around in a room and talked about who’s going to be the first one to quit, because it was like boot camp. It was brutal,” said Herring, a three-year starting linebacker at Florida State from 1978-1980. “Now guys sit around and play video games and want to know who’s got the next game.”
Herring added the emphasis on keeping the players healthy at practice, and making sure they drink plenty of fluids, has been a good move.
“There are some things these days that are a lot more smarter and educated than the way things were done when I played,” he said. “Now we know it’s good to get as much water as you want... Before, you were made to feel like a bad person or a weak individual if you wanted water.”
Weber, going into his 35 th football season as Arkansas ’ trainer, said he and Nutt share a similar vision in how to prepare a team, which includes cutting back on full-scale practices while still achieving the goal of being ready for the season.
“It’s been a joint effort over the past few years,” Weber said. “It’s been a process of learning the best way to do things.”
Before returning to Arkansas as head coach in 1998, Nutt was the Razorbacks’ receivers coach from 1990-1992.
“Houston always took care of his players,” Weber said. “He’d get the work out of them and make them better, but running them into the ground was not the way to do it.
“ That was a little bit different thinking [than a lot of other coaches ] at the time.”
Decker said he believes Nutt’s practice approach has benefited Arkansas in overtime games, in which the Razorbacks are 5-1 in his nine-year tenure, including winning at Ole Miss and Kentucky in an NCAA-record seven overtimes.
“Coach Nutt has made a lot of good decisions in terms of keeping our guys fresh,” Decker said. “Sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s what you don’t do that helps your team the most.”
After Arkansas plays Troy on Sept. 1 and has an open date, the Razorbacks play games for 11 consecutive weeks.
“The fresher your tank is going into that whole thing, the better,” Decker said. “I think the way we’ve [handled preseason practice ] is going to pay huge dividends down the road.”
Nutt said he believes more college teams will begin cutting back on two-a-day practices, but that a key to its success is making sure the players are as focused in the meetings and walk-throughs as when they’re on the field.
“I want a high level of intensity with everything we’re doing,” he said. “As I tell our players, ‘If I ask you about a play, you’d better know it.’”
Weber recently spoke with a colleague at another southern college who said the football team there was going through full-scale two-a-days in the heat of the day.
“But do you really want to subject young people — or people of any age for that matter — to that when it’s not necessary to get ready to play a whole season ?” Weber said. “It’s all about, ‘What does it take to get ready to play and win the games ?’
“ Our practices are shorter now, but they’re more intense. These guys are going to be fine.”