April 11, 2002
The University of Notre Dame football team continued its spring season with a spirited two-hour practice session Thursday afternoon. First-year head coach Tyrone Willingham and his staff remained focused on teaching a new system to the Irish players, constantly filling them with new information. He noted that, in such a concentrated learning environment, players can become mentally full of knowledge and lose their edge.
“It was a good learning session for our young men,” Willingham said. “This is right about the time that, as coaches, we anticipated some difficulty because we have been constantly giving them information each day in terms of preparing them for practice. What we wanted to do was keep testing and expanding their mental horizons in terms of the information that they had. Today, we kind of reached that saturation point.”
Willingham also pointed out that he was pleased with the progress his team has been showing during the spring season.
“It’s a very delicate balance because once you reach that mental overload, it causes your feet to slow down to some degree, so you lose just a little bit there. But, we will continue to press forward and even though there was difficulty today, I like the direction that our young men are going.”
The Irish will continue their rigorous spring practice schedule for the next two weeks, culminating with the annual Blue-Gold Scrimmage on April 27.
Back In The Great Outdoors
After being forced indoors by poor weather earlier this week, the Irish took advantage of the sunny skies and balmy temperatures in South Bend and returned outdoors to be put through their paces by Willingham and his staff.
“I think the players will always tell you that, given their preference, they would love to be outside,” Willingham said. “Especially with the great day that we had, it was simply ideal to be outside. It was just good for the coaches and also good for the players.”
— ND —