Cats Start Spring Football Practice

Courtesy WCU Athletics Media Relations                

"Today was a good first day -- I feel like we're off to a really good start to our spring," said head football coach Mark Speir following the first practice. "I liked the energy the guys came out with. They were excited to get out here as I know our coaches were, too. I felt like both sides of the ball had a lot of retention and I thought the guys came out and executed very well."

"We're going to be very basic this spring. Through our first seven practices, the guys are going to be tired of hearing the same old calls because we're going to get good at our `bread and butter' plays and really teach the fundamentals and techniques. We're going to get good at who we are, and I thought today was a great start for that," Speir added.

"Defensively, we've got a lot of new faces, but I was excited about how they were flying around to the ball. We had two new coaches out here today in Coach (Tripp) Weaver and Coach (Dustin) Hood on the defensive side of the ball, and I thought they jumped right in and acted like they've been here for three or more years," Speir added.

"We don't have any magical calls as coaches -- our players are the magic," Speir explained. "We've got to get them to where they are very confident and they're very focused on what they're doing and then they can fly around and be physical. We've got to play fast, especially when you've got some young players like we do on defense. You can't bog down their minds with a bunch of calls. So, we're just preaching to them, `Guys -- you're the magic; go play hard, go play fast; go play physical.'