MOUNT PLEASANT ? Central Michigan's football program kicked off the spring practice season Thursday morning with a two-hour workout in the Indoor Athletic Complex.
It marked the first time since December's Motor City Bowl that the Chippewas' players and coaches were back on the practice field.
"With today being the first day obviously everyone was very excited to get out on the field and actually play football,"
said head coach Butch Jones. "I'm very proud of the offseason our players had in the strength program. The individuals that we needed to gain weight and strength have made those gains."
Thursday's practice was the first of 15 practice dates, the final of which is CMU's annual spring football game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on April 18. Following the opening practice, Jones outlined three primary objectives for his team to accomplish over the next month.
"We have three goals that we have established for spring practice,"
he said. "The first is to continue to improve our maturity level. We are an extremely young football team with a lot of first-year and second-year players. It's critical that we continue to improve our football intelligence."
"Second is getting better at the fundamentals of the game?blocking, tackling, route running, catching the ball, stances, starts. The third thing is that we need to play fast in all three phases of the game, and in order to do that we have to have a great grasp mentally of what we want to accomplish in all three phases. We say all the time that, 'We can't let the feet tie the mind up,' and that is something we are constantly working on."
The Chippewas will return to the practice field Saturday.
The Young Get Younger:
For the third straight year, CMU's roster will feature a small senior class. The current roster lists just 13 players who will have senior eligibility in the fall.
"Our team is mostly true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores,"
Jones said. "We are very young in the offensive and defensive lines. Our older kids have done a great job of educating all of these younger guys what it takes to be ready to play at this level. We played a lot of young kids last year who maybe weren't necessarily quite ready for that, but the one thing you cannot put a price tag on is experience and we're hoping that experience they gained pays dividends."
Everyday Evaluation:
While Jones and his staff have outlined the three goals they want to accomplish throughout spring drills, there will also be a constant evaluation of everyone in the program over the next month.
"The most important thing is to constantly be improving with each and every practice,"
Jones said. "Each time we walk off the practice field, it is of the utmost importance that every individual be a better player than when they walked on the field. Individual improvement leads to collective improvement."
