The SU Football team seemed pumped to be back on the field for their first practice on Monday, just a month removed from their opening game against Northwestern. And while Head Coach Doug Marrone was impressed with the physical shape of his players, he admitted their timing was off. A two hour practice took 17 minutes longer than it should have, just one indication that there's lots of work to do.
"To become a good football team, you have to finish the practice in the designated amount of time," said Marrone, "That's the first thing you have to do."
And while it was tough for the Head Coach to properly gage his team in shorts and helmets, the Orange will look to get into football shape as the team works towards practicing with pads for the first time this coming Friday.
"There's a difference between being able to go out there and run, have endurance and sprint and then to go out on the football field and do it with X amount of pounds put on your body," added Marrone said. "I really think that Will Hicks (Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Performance) and Hal Luther (Director of Strength and Conditioning) did an excellent job from what I have seen out there by just looking at the players physically, not necessarily on performance. Now, it's our responsibility as coaches to make sure that we're ready to play the game of football."
