Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Football finishes installation of offense and defense
08/15/2009 | 12:00:00 | Football
Aug. 15, 2009
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
Daily Camp Blog -- Daily Photo Gallery
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Saluki football team had a 90-minute practice on the grass fields Saturday morning, and head coach Dale Lennon said he was pleased with the progress of the team heading into tomorrow's scrimmage.
Now that you've completed the install, are you pleased with the way the team has absorbed it?
Yeah, I am. We've put a lot in offensively and defensively, so now we have to take a little step back and make sure the sharpness becomes a part of it. I think our players understand what they need to do, now we have to make it second nature.
Coach Longo made a point that the fourth and fifth day of practice is often when teams start to struggle with the mental aspect, due to the amount of info. they're absorbing. Has that been your experience as well?
With install you're always going to hit the wall, or as I like to say, the circuits will be burning at a certain point. That happened for us yesterday. It was not one of our better practices. There were some tempo issues. It's like running a marathon. You hit the proverbial wall, and you have to work through it. Today was much sharper, and that's where you need to rebound and improved from those down practices.
What are you hoping to see during the scrimmage tomorrow?
Well, just to do the fundamentals well. We'll have pretty much a vanilla offensive and defensive gameplan. We just want to put guys in position to see how they play the game.
During practice, you signal plays to the offense and defense. Is that done to simulate game situations?
Everything is game prep. You want them so comfortable in reading signals. If you just signal at game time, the room for error is that much greater. You're trying to make the system as foolproof as possible. We're probably one scrimmage away from using the headsets as well.
Have you had any motivational speakers talk to the team during camp so far?
We have guests come in and have supper with us. Bill Norwood gave us a good message, as did Glenn Poshard. We'll continue to bring in people from the community that have a vested interest in Saluki Football.
