The Vandal football team buckled up its chin straps for the first spring practice of the season under the helm of head coach Jason Eck and his staff.
The high energy practice consisted of players and coaches hooting and hollering, jumping and high-fiving, while feeding off the music playing throughout practice on the Sprint Turf outside of the Kibbie Dome yesterday.
You could feel the intensity in the air.
“It was a lot of fun to get back out here and actually play football,” said defensive lineman, Nate DeGraw. “It’s going to be good to see how everyone does. We’re all playing fast and I though it was a really good day of competition.”
Eck said he liked the energy of todays practice and wants to keep it up and continue improving its level of execution.
“That’s kind of my message to the guys, energy is like the price of admission, energy and effort,” Eck said. “Effort gives you a chance, but execution is what wins. We have to keep cleaning things up and improving some details.”
This was the first of 14 spring practices the Vandals will have leading up to the spring game at Eagle High School near Boise on April 30.
Eck expects the rest of Spring competition to be beneficial to him and his team.
“By the time you get to the Spring game, you have a pretty good evaluation of all the players. I’m hoping we have a good crowd down there,” Eck said. “You want to see how guys play when the lights turn on and its more of a game setting. We have to do a good job as a staff of evaluating our players and see who’s going to give us chances to win games in the Fall.”
And for the seniors, like DeGraw, winning in the fall is certainly on their minds.
“This last season means a lot to us,” DeGraw said. “We haven’t really won a lot of games while we’re here. This is kind of our last shot, having a season like that and getting a ring and going into the playoffs. For us seniors, it’s a big one.”
Eck knows the expectations for this season and understands the passionate history that was once strongly associated with the Vandal football program. This comes with his history with the team.
Before this season, Eck last coached with the Vandals in 2006 as the offensive line coach, and this season he is bringing back tradition.
After practice, Eck reintroduced the battle axe award that was used in the program over a decade ago. The wood handled; double edged, shiny axe resembles one that barbaric vandal warriors used in battle centuries ago.
He announced the axe will be given to the player that stands out and works the hardest during each practice. Yesterday it was awarded to sophomore defensive end, Malakai Williams.
Eck brining back traditions like the battle axe and the phrase “V’s up,” as in Vandals up, has come with overwhelming support from the Vandal community on Twitter and “Eckcitment” that the program hasn’t had in years.
“The biggest difference (compared to last season) is players attitudes towards coming in every day,” DeGraw said. “Players seem more excited to be here. More excited to work. We have spent a lot more time getting to know each other outside of football, so I think that has been beneficial.”
This season is going to be an important one for Vandal football as a whole.
It will give players the opportunity to prove themselves in big time games and the chance for Eck and his staff to display their skills and show Vandal fans and the Big Sky what the Eck era is all about.
You can feel the energy Vandal football is bringing this season during the spring game and at the regular season opener, when Idaho takes on the Washington State Cougars on Sept. 3, in the Battle of the Palouse in Pullman.
Brock Craven can be reached at [email protected]