TicketsUC Gridders Go to Camp
Bearcats begin full contact work; move preseason camp to Higher Ground.
Contact: Tom Hathaway
8/16/2004
Head Coach Mark Dantonio |
The first five days of preseason football practice at the University of Cincinnati has largely been a learning experience. The intensity of that experience is about to be turned up, however, as the team engages in full contact work.
Sunday was the first day the Bearcats could practice in full uniform. New head coach Mark Dantonio and his staff put the squad through a spirited workout, which included considerable full-scale hitting.
The team will resume its school of hard knocks on Monday afternoon, after moving to the Higher Ground Conference Center in West Harrison, Ind., where UC will conduct drills for the ensuing 10 days. The Bearcats will conduct a practice session on Monday afternoon, then begin a stretch in which they will have two practices a day followed by a day with a single practice session.
"Everyone reported in shape and the attitude has been good," stated Dantonio in evaluating the Bearcats' progress to date. "We are in the middle of finding out our roles and learning how to take advantage of opportunities."
Conducting camp in the solitude of Higher Ground will provide the opportunity for enhancing team unity, according to Dantonio. "It allows us to concentrate and focus on the challenges ahead," said the coach.
The camp will also provide the team more space on which to practice. Higher Ground provides two full-size practice fields and over twice as much space as is available to the Bearcats, whose practices have been limited to Nippert Stadium, on the UC campus.
The players should feel right at home on the turf, as FieldTurf, the artificial playing surface in Nippert Stadium, has been installed on one of the practice fields. The other remains natural grass.
"We will reiterate the goals we first set in the spring of playing with toughness and efficiency," Dantonio explained of his objective for the Higher Ground portion of the training camp. "We want to be a team that plays fast, and to do that, we've got to know what to do and how to adjust."