Post Classifieds
Team gets jump start with spring practices
By A.J. Speier
On April 7, 2012
The Buffalo State football team kicked off their spring practices last week in preparation for next season.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until April 27, the team will practice from 6:30-8:30 a.m. There
are 15 practices in all, and if a player is even a second late, they're locked out of meetings.
"I remember the first day of spring ball and I was not used to getting up that early since I have class at
nine," freshman kicker Alex Debbins said. "So I just woke up and drove here and got here at 6:29 to
slip into the meeting at the very last second. I learned my lesson right then and there because once the
doors shut for the meeting, the doors shut."
The reason behind these early practices is that Buffalo State has only one field for four sports. The
lacrosse team and soccer team also use the field in spring and since lights haven't been installed, night
football practices aren't a possibility.
According to head coach Jerry Boyes, the field next to Parking Lot G and the Clinton Center by Rockwell
Road would be considered as options, but the conditions of the grass during spring time make practicing
there unrealistic.
"We do practice over there at times during the regular season," Boyes said. "When we have our own
soccer game during the course of the week, we're over there practicing.
"The problem with this time of the year though is the field has so many undulations and holes, it's not
the best to practice on," Boyes continued. "It's so muddy that we can't get anything done over there.
We really have no other option, but to practice at that time of the morning on Coyer Field."
In their first week of spring practices, the Bengals began their morning with a 30-minute meeting to
discuss what they would do on the field and to talk about the plays the coaches want them to execute
throughout practice.
Once the Bengals headed onto the field, they treated the spring practice like a normal practice. They did
position warm-ups, team stretching, worked on the kicking game, individual drills and seven-on-seven
drills before ending practice with some conditioning.
However, there is one major difference between spring practices and summer practices.
During spring practices, the Bengals aren't allowed to use helmets or shoulder pads.
"It's not like Division I and Division II where they're allowed helmets and shoulder pads," Boyes
said. "It's really fundamental and detail work. It's doing things correctly, from the stance and how we
come out of our stance, being at the right place and being there at the right time.
"It's kind of repetition going over our top offensive plays, the top defenses, coverages and the special
teams things that we do," Boyes continued. "We do more things in breaking down aspects of the game."
For players such as quarterback Casey Kacz, the spring practices allow them to get more comfortable
learning the plays. Kacz transferred to Buffalo State from Edinboro University last year.
"It's a lot different running plays already because I have a lot more confidence which I think is a big
thing," Kacz said. "Last spring I was a little nervous because I didn't know all the plays. Now I have a year
under my belt and I have guys around me that believe in me. It's a lot easier."
Each position utilizes the spring practices in their own way to improve their game. For the wide
receivers, they wanted to cut down on mental mistakes and after watching film they'll try to correct
those mistakes on the field.
"That's what spring is all about - focusing on those mental things that we made mistakes on early in
the year," wide receivers coach Matt Hanhold said. "What we do is, during our meetings, we'll watch
some of our film from last year and we'll see little things in alignment, a split, a wrong step, or a wrong
route. There are certain things that we can correct and the guys go out on the field and make those
changes to it."
The Bengals will conclude their spring practices on April 27 and get a chance to enjoy summer break
before returning for training camp in August.
A.J. Speier can be reached by email at speier.record@live.com.
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