Pre-Season Practice: The Importance of Making Every Minute Count

Pre-season practice plays an important role in getting your team prepared for the upcoming season. We spoke to two successful head coaches – Mike Leach of Texas Tech and Terry Hoeppner of Indiana University – about how they conduct their pre-season practices and what they hope to get out of them.     NCAA rules dictate that teams can begin practice about a month before their first game. Teams aren’t allowed to practice in full pads for the first five days. Also after that five-day acclimation period, teams can conduct two-a-day practices, but only every other day. Practice will start the second week in August at both Indiana and Texas Tech.     Leach said he wouldn’t run two-a-day practices more than every other day even if the NCAA permitted it. “I think you get more productive work by just doing it every other day,” he said. “Obviously in