WKU Football: “Toughness” Defines Day 1 of Spring Practice for Tops
Spring practice opened for WKU yesterday, marking the second spring with Mike Sanford at the helm of the Toppers program.
Spring practice opened for WKU yesterday, marking the second spring with Mike Sanford at the helm of the Toppers program.
Only Sanford spoke to the media after day one, but he was (as always) positive about the feel on the field after the first day of the spring.
“Our guys came out really ready to play,” Sanford said following practice.
Sanford also praised the running game after day one, saying “We had a team run period where we had, and I hate to say it, a quarter of our total rushing in one period from last season, that was exciting. We went back to the drawing board and looked at some things as coaches and asked ‘What can we do better?’ But, we have a long ways to go.” He also noted he saw the ball on the ground a lot, but I’ll allow it in a snowy first practice.
Another note he hit on was the lack of numbers on the defensive side of the ball (something I briefly touched on yesterday), saying “We’re dealing with some numbers issues inside — d-line in particular, and linebacker — but those guys flashed around and made a lot of plays.” Sanford praised Ben Holt for his day one effort.
Elliott Pratt from the Bowling Green Daily News said the theme of the day yesterday was how, already, it’s “night and day,” from where the Tops and coaching staff were this time last year.
“Last year we were just trying to get our bearings a little bit,” Sanford said, upon Elliott asking him. “We didn’t know our team, as coaches, and our players didn’t know us, really. And, honestly, I didn’t feel like we really got to know our team, and our players didn’t get to know us as coaches, going into a full year. That’s a completely different relationship now than when it was a year ago at this time,” Sanford elaborated.
If there’s one thing we’ve noted time and time again, it’s that Sanford knows how to hit all the right buttons, and after just the first day leading up to the 2018 season, that’s no different. We all want to see the running game improve, he says it has. We all want the players to like the coaching staff, something many felt wasn’t the case a year ago, and he says that has changed.
There’s only so much I can verify from not having been at practice, and call me a sucker if you’d like, but I’m liking what I’m hearing form Sanford.
We should be able to hear things from the players perspective tomorrow.
The aforementioned Elliott posted a video of Sanford discussing the quarterback battle, where he was very complementary of Drew Eckles, and sounded very excited about the prospect of any of the three current QB’s on campus.