Auburn's first fall practice Friday was pretty boring.
Gus Malzahn's team ran around in shorts and t-shirts and went through the motions. That's all they can do these days because, well, fitness experts are wiser than they were 20 years ago. Players now are eased into physical activity over the course of four days, which helps them acclimate to the physical demands of the real football practices to come.
It's a noble position. It's probably a smart position. But it has changed things.
During the 1990s, and surely for many decades before that, the first day of practice was a test of will. Players back then often spent their summers at home. Some players took their fitness very seriously, some didn't. Some relocated from points well north of Alabama without understanding how humidity can humble a man in minutes.
On this day in 1999, I watched an Auburn coach hover over an offensive lineman from another part of the country. This was not a cheery conversation. The lineman was vomiting into his helmet because the coach said players were not permitted to soil the turf with vomit.
I was a young reporter from the basketball-centric world of Kentucky and had not seen this kind of savagery on a practice field before. I felt bad for enjoying the scene. Here's this kid, long way from home, football dreams, Auburn University — and now he's facing his worst athletic moment, maybe the worst moment of his entire life, with his position coach loudly mocking the whole damn thing.
Humidity won again.
Yet the inescapable truth is that at least 85 other guys weren't heaving into their helmet. They were running and catching and doing up-downs and basically living their best lives in relative anonymity. They were ready. They'd put in the time. They'd made the sacrifices. And they'd put themselves in position to play.
We don't see coaches hovering over a heaving player these days. The football culture has changed for the better in that way; physical problems encountered on the field are managed much more cautiously because bad things happen sometimes. Plus, modern coaches on the whole are more mindful of their players' psychological states. There's a line between pushing a kid hard and pushing him over the edge — and that line of demarkation has shifted during the past two decades.
Still, that's not the whole story.
There no longer is an off-season for many athletes. Auburn football players don't go home for extended periods during the summer. They're under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning czar Ryan Russell 52 weeks per year; there simply is no time to get fat and lazy in front of the television.
Russell sees to that.
I thought about that a lot Friday when Auburn hit the practice field to begin preparations for its 2019 season. Though practice was devoid of contact and complexity, every healthy player was ready for the challenge. Malzahn mentioned that his team wore down toward the end of day, but that's to be expected because anticipation takes a physical toll. Sleep gets disturbed. Anxiety rears its head. Both sap strength; both will normalize soon.
Is it worth the sacrifice, though? Yeah, these players are in terrific shape all year long, but they also may never experience a true college summer and the gluttony it demands.
Ah, whatever. Now it's football season. Now it's time to compete.
Also, not one player used his helmet as a receptacle Friday. I call that progress.
