TUCSON, Ariz. -- After returning from Camp Huachuca on Sunday, the Arizona football team returned to Kindall Field for a two-hour workout in full pads Monday morning, the first practice since Saturday’s scrimmage.
“It was a poor performance,” coach Rich Rodriguez said of the weekend scrimmage. “It was poorer than our guys are capable of playing. As we told them, even if they are inexperienced, the effort should still be there. The young guys are learning a whole lot of stuff, but they played a little harder today. The scrimmage was a little better on defense, so they’re learning it’s just a process we’re going through right now.”
Monday’s practice opened with the team splitting into positional groups before spending the last half of practice in skeleton drills, culminating in a full team-on-team session. The end of practice was dedicated to working on the two-minute drill.
“We’ve got a good group of kids, but unfortunately, it’s hard to speed up the process of maturation sometimes,” Rodriguez added. “Even the upperclassmen have the tendency to get down on themselves because they have been beaten down. When you’re as poor as we were defensively last year and when you lack confidence, you have to learn that it’s a new day and you have to prove yourself all over again. Even though they’ve struggled at times, you can’t mope around and let it affect the next one.”
After spending the afternoon in meetings, the Wildcats will return to the practice field with a two-a-day session beginning at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
