The hitting begins

Jared Alexander (right) tackles Zack Splitter at practice Thursday morning as the Nevada football team was finally able to have full contact after three days without full pads.

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

The pads went on, the hitting began and the excitement was high at the Nevada High School football practice field on Thursday morning.

The Tigers had their first full-contact practice of the season and just about everybody was happy to see it arrive.

"It's real exciting," quarterback Justin Reed said.

"I love it," senior Luke Rainey said.

"They're fired up," head coach John Skeans said referring to the players. "They were excited about it, we were excited about it."

For the players it was a chance to finally release pent up energy that had been building since the offseason program began last spring.

For the coaches it was an opportunity to take their evaluations of the players to a new level.

The players and coaches wasted little time as they started the morning practice and went into a tackling circuit.

The tackling circuit was comprised of different stations manned by each of the coaches and the players rotated to each station in groups. The stations lasted roughly 10-15 minutes each and the players got an opportunity to learn and practice techniques on everything from tackling a ballcarrier to scooping up a loose fumble.

"It was a good practice for us," Skeans said. "It was a little more intense today."

The pads started really popping when the defense took the field against the scout offense toward the end of practice.

Skeans even mentioned a particular play when Rainey lined up a receiver that had caught the ball and was running across the middle. Rainey stuck him and the sound of the hit echoed throughout the field.

"Luke Rainey had a really good hit," Skeans said. "It's good to see. Plays like that will help us win football games."

After practice Rainey said it felt good.

"It's just a great feeling. Putting a hit like that feels awesome," Rainey said.

Reed said that even though he spends most of his time on the receiving end, he likes to mix it up as well.

"I'm always in on the hitting drills. You've got to learn how to take some hits too," Reed said.

Skeans said the first day of contact went as anticipated.

"We saw some great things and we saw some things we need to work on," he said.

This evening in the second part of the final two-a-days practice this season, the Tigers will have what Skeans called an "Opportunity Scrimmage".

"It's an opportunity for players to really solidify a spot on the depth chart," Skeans said.

Tomorrow the football team will go to once-a-day practices, which will last through the season.