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Tiger football camp off and running
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
The 2004 Nevada Tigers were literally getting their feet wet in the dew of the morning grass at their practice field on Monday as they opened a two-week summer camp.
Not long after the sun had greeted the day the Tigers were at work, hitting the field at 6:45 a.m. for the first of 10 practices as the team began getting familiar with its new coach.
First-year coach John Skeans had the practice scripted up to the minute. There was stretching, calisthenics and then the roughly 60 players split into their positions for drills.
After a short time of doing drills scripted specifically for their positions, the players were brought together as a team to try and incorporate what they learned in their drills as a unit.
This happened on more than one occasion as Skeans had the players learning the basics of how he will run the football program.
The team practiced their huddles, a few plays were introduced. Everything was open game as the players became familiar with the coaches and the coaches became familiar with the players.
"The first day of our program, everything's new," Skeans said after a 2 1-2 hour practice session. "The way we stretch, the way we line up, the way we condition. Even the terminology."
That did not stop the players from making strides, setting into motion what Skeans hopes is the beginning of a successful football program.
"I thought we got a lot done," he said. "We're putting in a new system on both sides of the ball."
One thing Skeans was not happy about was the practice ending at 9:18 a.m. That is three minutes behind schedule.
"I hate not being on schedule," he said. "By the end of the week we will be right on time."
The players were split into two groups for the majority of the practice. The freshman were in one group and the rest of the high school players were in another.
The freshman spent the first day working on defense, while the tentative "varsity" worked on offense. Skeans said that would change on Tuesday as the two would switch.
Skeans said that offensively the team seemed to be coming along fine considering only one practice was under their belt.
"I think they're catching on pretty quick," Skeans said.
One thing that could not be overlooked was that there were around 60 players participating in the offseason camp. With two-a-days still a couple weeks away, the Tigers had more attendance than there were players on the team from a year ago.
"The numbers are good," Skeans conceded.
Most of all, the coach enjoyed getting on the field and finally getting the opportunity to mold the football team that he has seen working in the weightroom all summer.
"It's great to get out between the lines and pitch and catch," Skeans said. "As coaches it's always good to give back what we've learned to the players."
They'll be giving back daily as the players wake up with the sun, venture over to the practice field, and prepare over the next two weeks to set the foundation for the 2004 season.