Colt. Amigo. Iowa.

    At each practice these words are most commonly used. To those who don’t play football they are the most random mix of words. However, to players they can be the difference between winning and losing.   

    “As a whole, practice is two hours long,” defensive coordinator Adam Metzler said.

    Each day for four days a week, the football team practices outside from 4 to 6. They have a team meeting from 2:50 to 3:45 which is when they typically go over the game plan for that specific day or go over game film.

    “For a game week practice we have meetings before practice,” senior Ben Collins said. “We will have meetings until 3:45 after that we head outside and do pre-practice. Which for offensive line consists of walking through plays and occasionally a blocking drill. After that we do our warm ups, which will then lead into our first individual time.”

    For defense, it’s the same. They do their pre-practice of walking through the plays and then their own type of drill before they go into warm ups and break off into individual time. Which means that the running backs go to the running back coach, the defensive line goes with the defensive coach, the linebackers go with the linebacker coach, etc.      
    “We are different because in the way we install each week,” offensive coordinator Caleb Small said, “The way we get together each week. We see a different look each week against defensive line. Defensive line has similar looks throughout the year, we don’t get the luxury most times. The mental aspect of grasping a new look each week is what’s difficult.”

    This year a lot of the varsity players are playing new positions, like junior Austin Bridenthal.

    “I play inside linebacker,” Bridenthal said, “This is my first year. I like it because I like to tackle.”

    Something both Collins and Bridenthal can agree on is that they dislike most is what the offense and defense share: conditioning and running. Something both love is tackling and when you pancake, a block where the other player ends flat on the ground.

    Taking on practice for a football player is almost the same for the offensive and defense. It just depends on what position coach you go to during individual time.