Sunday, February 21, 2010

Southern Jaguars Rise Early for Football Spring Practice

When players reported for the first session of Stump Mitchell’s first spring practice at Southern University, the lights shone above A.W. Mumford Stadium, and the temperature stood still at 33 degrees. It was Friday morning, while much of Baton Rouge was still hugging its pillow. Practice began at 5:30 a.m. — and in the month since Mitchell took over at SU, players have learned how to read pro football time. In other words, they needed to be ready at 5:20.

Why so early? The No. 1 reason, Mitchell said, is logistics. Because many players at SU have afternoon classes, before-dawn sessions are the only way to get the entire team together at once. “You have to have reps at something,” Mitchell said. “You can’t just watch it on video or watch somebody else do it and think you can be pretty proficient at it. ... So we go early, unfortunately. Or fortunately. It depends on if you’re an early riser or not.” Of course, there are a few ancillary benefits to the early rise. First, players aren’t as likely to oversleep and blow off class — and blowing off class, Mitchell said, is a big no-no with him.

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