Aug. 21, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The Western Kentucky University football team continued preparations for its season-opening contest at I-A Kansas State (Saturday, Aug. 31, at 6:10 p.m. CDT) with a series of practices following classes this week.
The Hilltoppers have worked out for two hours a day each of the last three days, with Wednesday's drills conducted in helmets and shorts.
"As you get older, you learn the process that the players go through" 14th-year head coach Jack Harbaugh said. "They come in and start fast during two-a-days before starting to slow down. The low point is when classes start - they become concerned with building locations and books, they're running around to grab food, so football takes a low priority. But we're over that now, they are more acclimated to their schedule after a few days."
Despite the chaos surrounding the first days of class, he believes that Wednesday's workout was the Toppers' best performance of the week. "This was the closest we've come since the beginning of the spring to getting the feeling of being consistent on offense," said Harbaugh.
"The hard thing about football is that with 11 players out there, if nine or 10 guys do their job a perfect play blows up because someone was overmatched or missed their assignment. It takes a lot of patience to run the same plays over again until you can get all 11 players on the same page."
Defensively, Harbaugh hopes to continue to see his veteran leaders focus on improving. Western returns six starters from a unit that led the Gateway Conference in rushing, passing, total and scoring defense in the Hilltoppers' first year in the league.
"Experience tells you that when you have a large group of kids back who know their assignments, you look at their energy level," he said. "You want to see that they are not bored or that they've lost focus. Woody Hayes once said, 'You can either get better or you can get worse.' There is nothing worse than watching a talented player who doesn't get better every day."
The Toppers will practice at 2:30 p.m. for two hours each of the next two days, then will have their second scrimmage of preseason camp Saturday at 5 p.m. Friday's workout will again be without pads.
- WKU -
