Intensity picks up for Bulldogs as season nears (Photo gallery)
A steady clinging of weights and primal yells echoed through the Crestview weight room during a recent lifting session
There’s a sense of urgency these days in the weight room and on the practice field as the Bulldogs prepare for the 2010 season.
Offseason workouts are winding down and the official start of preseason drills is less than three weeks away.
Bulldog coach Matt Brunson is making the most of the time he has left this summer.
“We stayed with the basic stuff this spring, but now we are putting in our game plan,” he said. “We are getting ready for Aug. 26 (and the Kickoff Classic at Gulf Breeze).
“We are building things we are going to do offensively and adding things we are going to do defensively. Of course we can’t tackle full speed or run into each other, but we believe we identified this spring who will, who won’t, who can and who’s left. We are teaching those other things every day.”
While some coaches view the shorter summer as a negative, Brunson thinks having a longer spring practice was a more than fair trade.
“We are working on a shorter summer schedule,” he said. “We are doing a lot of weight training and conditioning. But it all washes because we played (the spring game) May 28.
“Back when we had a long summer, we played May 14. We actually had two more weeks in pads instead of two more weeks in summer. So being how we had the whole month of May to work on spring ball with the way that we worked them, our kids are fine.”
Brunson is pleased with the work the Bulldogs have put in as they prepare for the 2010 season.
“Our kids have a great attitude,” he said. “If they are not committed they don’t last. The guys that made it through the spring are still here.”
As is the case with many long-time coaches, Brunson believes the work teams do in the passing game might be the biggest change in the way people approach the summer.
“There is a lot more emphasis now on the passing stuff and the seven-on-seven,” Brunson said. “We get out there and work on our passing game, but we had never heard of seven-on-seven back then.
“The game has evolved into a lot of summer passing competitions for good and bad reasons. You know you can work, spread out and throw the ball around as much as possible.”
Brunson also has witnessed the way teams train with weights evolved from his playing days at Baker when he pointed out, “They used to kill us.”
The Bulldogs would probably say the same thing, but there is a method to what seems to be madness in the routine.
“We are trying to be more intense in the weight room,” Brunson said. “It’s a lot faster and there is a lot more intensity. You do a lot more resistance stuff than just with barbells and dumbbells.
“I think one thing is you’ve got to want to play football to do all that stuff. When they do it, they pull together and they pull for each other. They help each other and it makes more for a tighter group, and once they’ve been to war together in that weight room, hopefully it will carry out on the field.”
