Practice in the Offseason

This time of year has to be my least favorite because yes it's great to get back on the field but that feeling goes away soon.  For us, the fall means waking up at 5:30 every morning for lift and run Monday-Friday with practice in the afternoon, meanwhile taking classes in between.  After getting a pump in and breaking a sweat four hours before the rest of the campus rolls out of bed is a good feeling until waking up in class to find out you falling in your dream was actually a 30 minute nap in which your feeling of falling was actually your head descending straight for your desktop but luckily stopping an inch from breaking your nose and alerting everyone in class that you have no clue where or how you got there.
During the first week guys tend to fly around and the energy level is high because it's new and exciting.  But then all of a sudden that 15th practice rolls around and everything seems to be monotonous or redundant and guys tend to lose that drive.  In professional sports these things don't really matter to the team because they have a crowd to feed off for energy.  However, college is different.  You aren't playing in front of 40,000 screaming fans a night and energy and focus must come from within the team.  For us, sometimes it might be a joke here or there to lighten up the mood, but this is dangerous because you don't want to be too loose and relaxed.  Some guys like to wake up little earlier or listen to their "pump" up music to get them going.  Our philosophy is not to get too high or too low during a practice or game.  We want to play every team the same way with the same level of intensity.]