Teaching Continues in Bobcat Camp
8/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
After taking a moment to greet a couple of distinguished guests during Thursday's Bobcat football practice, MSU head coach Rob Ash came away with a smile.
MSU President Dr. Geoff Gamble, himself a former college football player, and Provost Dr. David Dooley, the University's top academic official, spent a few minutes observing MSU's second session of fall camp in shoulder pads and helmets, and had a message for Ash. "Like President Gamble said, athletics really is an educational process," Ash said. "You teach skills, and you teach fundamentals of activity. You also teach concepts like teamwork and working together, there are a lot of different concepts. That's what building a team is all about."
Ash cited Thursday's practice as a case in point, the intersection between learning and execution. "(Thursday) I saw guys getting better at their individual skills while they were learning the plays. That's what we have to have. I'm really happy with their effort and their focus, they've really gone the extra mile. They know how important it is."
With the Bobcats donning full pads on Friday, Ash said the players responded well. "The tempo was great today. The word I used was urgency. I talked to them about having only once chance to learn today, then we'd never get it back again. It would be gone forever. So we had to have a sense of urgency about learning, about getting plays run, about getting tempo in. They really took that to heart, and I was pleased with that."
There is a major factor working in his team's favor, Ash said. "These guys definitely know how to practice," Ash said. "That's a major positive. They're going full speed, they're staying high so people stay off the ground. There's very few collisions with the legs, so your odds of staying healthy are very good."
Still, Ash looks forward to Friday's full-pads workout. "Tomorrow when we put the full pads on we'll finally get that one other piece of the puzzle, which is finishing plays. I've always compared football in shells or football in helmets only to playing basketball with a lid on the basket. You can run your plays and shoot the ball up there, but you don't know if it went in or it didn't. If you're not in full pads you don't know if the running back broke the tackle or he didn't, if a guy finished a block or not. We'll actually do some full, live, tackle-to-the-ground, because we have to see who's finishing plays."
MSU President Dr. Geoff Gamble, himself a former college football player, and Provost Dr. David Dooley, the University's top academic official, spent a few minutes observing MSU's second session of fall camp in shoulder pads and helmets, and had a message for Ash. "Like President Gamble said, athletics really is an educational process," Ash said. "You teach skills, and you teach fundamentals of activity. You also teach concepts like teamwork and working together, there are a lot of different concepts. That's what building a team is all about."
Ash cited Thursday's practice as a case in point, the intersection between learning and execution. "(Thursday) I saw guys getting better at their individual skills while they were learning the plays. That's what we have to have. I'm really happy with their effort and their focus, they've really gone the extra mile. They know how important it is."
With the Bobcats donning full pads on Friday, Ash said the players responded well. "The tempo was great today. The word I used was urgency. I talked to them about having only once chance to learn today, then we'd never get it back again. It would be gone forever. So we had to have a sense of urgency about learning, about getting plays run, about getting tempo in. They really took that to heart, and I was pleased with that."
There is a major factor working in his team's favor, Ash said. "These guys definitely know how to practice," Ash said. "That's a major positive. They're going full speed, they're staying high so people stay off the ground. There's very few collisions with the legs, so your odds of staying healthy are very good."
Still, Ash looks forward to Friday's full-pads workout. "Tomorrow when we put the full pads on we'll finally get that one other piece of the puzzle, which is finishing plays. I've always compared football in shells or football in helmets only to playing basketball with a lid on the basket. You can run your plays and shoot the ball up there, but you don't know if it went in or it didn't. If you're not in full pads you don't know if the running back broke the tackle or he didn't, if a guy finished a block or not. We'll actually do some full, live, tackle-to-the-ground, because we have to see who's finishing plays."
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