There was a time when the start of two-a-days in August was actually the start of football practice. The summers were spent lifting weights and running.
But somewhere along the line, perhaps with the development of 7-on-7 competitions and, later, team camps, that has not been the case. Now, the start of fall practice actually is a time of pulling back on workouts, taking off the pads and kind of taking a pause in the intensity before going full pads for longer practices (in place of two-a-days) as August unfolds and the season approaches.
“Conditioning and fundamentals,” is what Bryant head coach Buck James said was the plan for the Hornets on Monday and Tuesday of this week before getting the pads on for full-tilt practices on Wednesday.
Bryant will be preparing for their earliest season opener. With the Arkansas Activities Association decision to allow “zero week” scheduling, the Hornets and the rival Benton Panthers will play the annual Salt Bowl to open the season on Saturday, Aug. 25, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
The Hornets play a pre-season scrimmage at Pulaski Academy on Thursday, Aug. 16.
“We’re paying attention to detail, little things, fundamentals, just starting over with our base, just re-teaching and conditioning,” James said. “That’s all we really can do.
“We play in 25 days,” he acknowledged. “They (AAA) moved up the start time a couple of days but you can’t do anything any faster.”
Due to a professional development day on Tuesday, the Hornets worked out briefly early in the morning.
“I like where our football team is right now,” James stated. “It’s just what we can do between now and Aug. 25, between now and November.
“It was probably one of the most productive summers we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he related. “I thought we competed well in our (four) team camps. We had them against good, athletic football teams, West Memphis, Pine Bluff, Parkview, Little Rock Christian, Watson Chapel, McClellan. That’s what we needed to see.
“I thought we got better,” the coach said. “I thought our offensive linemen played really well. They were fierce competitors, I thought. They got after it. I hope we can build off that energy throughout the season.”
The team also competed in several 7-on-7 tournaments.
“We only lost three seven-on-seven games the whole year,” James noted. “We got beat by Allen, Texas; Keller, Texas; and Camden, New Jersey. We got beat by teams that are all going to play for State championships in other states and, two of the games, we got beat by one point. We got a chance to get better and we did.”
Developing depth has been a part of the task.
“It’s been our goal,” the coach asserted. “The way we’ve split up our teams this summer, we took the linemen to team camps and really our young kids for the skill part. I thought they more than held their own with those teams.
“We didn’t really play our varsity skill, except in one of them,” he mentioned. “It gave them a chance under fire to get some reps. And we played some JV 7-on-7’s to help those guys.
“We tried to get as many kids as many reps in practices we can. When I compare them up against other peoples’, I feel like we’re ahead of schedule. But I don’t know what we’ll be against other people in our conference. People in our conference do a good job of doing that as well.
“Our strength and conditioning has been great,” James said. “Coach (Chris) Jordan has done a heck of a job with that. I feel like we’re in a better place at the start of the season than we’ve been since I’ve been here.
James has scheduled a scrimmage for Saturday.
“I don’t know how intense that will be,” he allowed. “We’ll definitely get a look. And it may be more young guys than we do the older guys. You know, I don’t need to find out if LaTavion Scott can run the football. I don’t need to know that Ren Hefley can play quarterback or Blaise Smith can play tackle or Kajuan Robinson can play defense or Nate Wallace or Andrew Hayes.”
“All in all, I don’t know if we could do any more in the summer to make us better than where we’re at right now,” the coach concluded. “I feel like everything that we needed to improve on the last two years, we got it accomplished this summer.”
James had mixed feelings about the “zero week” scheduling.
“I think it’s good for the Salt Bowl because it gives us a chance to play when a lot of other people aren’t playing,” he stated. “It gives us a week after, just to get our bearings back and everything.
“But, if we weren’t playing the Salt Bowl, I wouldn’t care about playing (in zero week),” he continued. “If you’re going to have a break, I’d rather have the break early in the year than I had later in the year. I don’t like the week off during the playoffs. I think it’s easier to keep playing. But it does help for injuries.
“And this can help for injuries too. If a guy got hurt during two-a-days or summer ball and has a chance to come back and play — I think if you’re going to have injuries, they’re probably going to be in the first week or two way more than later in the year, it seems like.”
