Most SEC football camps hit the halfway mark this week.
That’s the good news. It means we are getting closer to real games.
The bad news is that the opening games are still at least two weeks away and classes are starting all across the Southeastern Conference. That means this is the time for the mid-camp blues. The time when the players have to reach down and find that little extra motivation to keep going when it is 90-100 degrees and they are being pounded on by big, rough teammates.
It is not easy. It is a gut check for players who, at this point, begin to question just how bad they really want to play football. It’s a long way from being a BMOC; now it’s just work. Hard, dirty work.
“I told them this is the toughest time of the year. Camp is great because it’s just football and you’re excited about getting the season started,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “When camp breaks, it’s anti-climactic. You’re sitting here now for three weeks waiting to play a game.
“Now it’s time to focus and not lose momentum created in camp. The bottom line is we have to be mentally strong enough to continue habits that will help us win. We’re creating habits, whether they are good or bad. Even 90 percent is not quite good enough. We want to get everything out of them.
“We want to see continuity on offense and defense, especially with the starting units,” Richt said. “I want to see the No. 1 units dominate and I want to see guys on the No. 2 units making plays. This is another opportunity to play full speed, to play fast.”
Richt is one of 14 SEC coaches — and many hundreds more across the nation — to face this problem.
“This is the most difficult week,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “Everyone looks forward to the first scrimmage then this becomes a bit of a hump week in terms of guys continuing to improve and work on the things they need to work on. It’s all about where you are, where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.”
“We’ve got a lot of new guys in a lot of new places, but we are gradually making some improvement. We want to continue to do things the right way. So far I have been pretty pleased with the way these guys have tried to do things the right way.”
At Auburn, Wednesday was the last day of two-a-days before classes started on Thursday.
“The physicality is getting closer to where we want to be in terms of what we’re stressing,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik. “There are some minute details that require a lot of focus that we have not arrived at, but we’ve improved the last few practices on those. The last two days of practice were really, really good. I think things are starting to click.
“We’ve got a lot of guys being beat up and tired but battling through, which is good to see. That is by design — we’ve got to develop that edge mentally. I’m proud of them. They’re beat up, but they’re fighting for jobs.”
Kentucky coach Joker Phillips is happy with his team’s work thus far in fall camp.
“When is the last time we have made it through this thing with one back or with two backs or with three backs? When was the last time?” he said talking about young tailbacks Dyshawn Mobley and Justin Taylor. “It just doesn’t happen and I’m talking about in this league. It is not just us, but in this league it is very seldom that a back lasts 12 games in this league. If we had to do it today they all would play.
“We have a great locker room right now, I love this locker room,” Phillips said. “We have guys doing the things the right way and especially the guys at the top are leading the young guys and teaching them how we do things. We need all 105 of these players to be with us when we play Sept. 2.”
“They’re young guys and you have to teach them to be mentally tough and fight through adversity,” Vanderbilt coach James Franklin said. “Everybody’s tired, everybody’s cramping and their legs are sore, but you still have to fight through it and make plays. But we run a tough, blue-collar program, so it’ll happen.”
“We have some camp weariness,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “It’s like the last 26 plays of a game where you have to have attention to detail and complete focus. I felt like it was what we needed. We weren’t perfect in any way and we’re not ready to play and frankly we’re got to do some things better.”
Tennessee coach Derek Dooley rewarded his team by canceling Wednesday night’s practice.
“When Smokey’s been hunting the way you want him to hunt, you throw that dog a bone,” Dooley said.
“They are hurting but they are pushing through. Their attitude has been great, it has just been hard. They are tired and beat on, but they are going to be recovering soon enough. That’s how you feel in the fourth quarter. You have to learn how to finish the drill.”
“It’s been good for team camaraderie but at some point you start getting on each other’s nerves,” said Dooley. “The offense is going against the same guy all the time so it’s getting a little edgy and that’s good, but they are handling it the right way.”
The problems have hit every team, even those with the excitement of working with new coaches and new staffs.
“The second week at every camp I’ve ever been to is the most difficult week,” said Hugh freeze, the Ole Miss Rebels’ first-year coach. “Everybody’s bodies are extremely sore. Fatigue has set in, but we’re not the only ones going through it.”