You can call them the dog days of spring. Marshall has wrapped up its third week of spring drills and the players are eagerly awaiting Saturday’s culmination of the four week practice period with the annual Green/White game.
Let’s face it. Spring football is not the most exciting football. Practices are very technical, there’s generally a lack of depth on the field due to seniors that have graduated and freshman that haven’t arrived on campus yet and even the slightest of injuries gets you a blue jersey and you end up watching more practice than actually taking part.
But nonetheless it is a necessary part of the game to prepare players for the upcoming season. With the limited number of practices and restrictions on the length of each practice in August, spring drills are essential to gauging what needs to be worked on in the fall. They take on even more importance when you have only two quarterbacks with next to no experience.
As the spring has worn on players like Vinny Curry have kept the ultimate goal in mind and have not had trouble getting motivated each practice.
“So many times last year we fell short. We all know what it takes and it’s not really hard to get psyched up because we all want this championship,” says Curry.
If there was any doubt that the players were having trouble ratcheting up the intensity, the three for four skirmishes between teammates during Friday’s practice are certainly an indication that tensions are high.
Each player finds ways to motivates himself during the monotonous practices and long workouts in the offseason. The fumble in the fourth quarter of the WVU game has motivated Tron Martinez. Although Vinny Curry wouldn’t come right out and say it, it is easy to see losing that game is motivating him as well.
“It’s the close games we lost, the things we didn’t execute last season,” Curry says motivates him each and every day. “We got to learn how to close games and be consistent.”
Marshall will conclude spring practice on Saturday with the annual Green/White game and then the real dog days will begin when the pads go on the shelves for the next few months and players move into their home away from home… the weight room.