The A&M Consolidated football team’s first fall practice may have started at 6 a.m. on Monday, but it felt more like a 7 p.m. Friday night kickoff under the lights at Tigerland Stadium.
The Tigers and their rival College Station began fall practices at their respective schools on Monday morning.
“I thought the excitement was good,” A&M Consolidated head coach Brandon Schmidt said. “I thought the players, the coaches, everyone got along pretty well, and I thought we competed really well from spring ball on.”
Both schools started this week because they participated in spring football, meaning they started a week later than the schools in Classes 5A and 6A that did not participate. The schools in 5A and 6A that did not participate in the spring, along with all of Classes 1-4A, began fall practice on Aug. 5 and will have their first of two scrimmage games this week.
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The Cougars and Tigers started their practice early at 6 a.m. They also finished around the same time, with Consol scheduled to finish at 7:40 a.m. while the Cougars planned to finish around 8 a.m.
The UIL does not allow teams to have full contact right away, so the first day will be played in helmets and shorts. Teams can add shoulder pads after the first two days, but cannot officially use full contact until Saturday.
There is still a lot to do in the first few days.
Schmidt says the focus on the first day was reviewing the team’s offensive and defensive lineup from the spring. He says from a coaching perspective, the staff needs to figure out what the players retained from the spring and what they need to go back over and review.
“But we really need to get together and do some team offense and team defense,” Schmidt said. “Make sure our kids know what’s going on from a personnel standpoint, make sure they know from a game standpoint and then do some individual drills and learn the technique and fundamentals.”
On the other hand, in College Station, training looked a little different as work was being done on the track around Cougar Field.
This meant that the players were spread out between the softball field and the two practice fields surrounding Cougar Field.
Things may have looked different from that perspective, but the work was similar to that of the Tigers.
College Station head coach Stoney Pryor says the main focus has been to get back into the swing of things.
“Getting the guys out, flying around and recognizing plays at a quick pace,” Pryor said. “…(Without starting pads) it’s about recognition and getting things done at a quick pace. So obviously we run our regular offense at a quick pace, so recognizing the signals is a big thing that they haven’t really done at a quick pace since we left in the spring. Even the guys playing 7-on-7, it’s not quite the same.”
He added that the fast pace benefits not only the team’s offense but also its defense.
“Offensively, we came out today with a lot of formations and a lot of movement, just a lot of movement to get our guys to make that movement,” Pryor said. “But on the defensive side, we had to recognize that, figure out how to reposition or increase coverage or get their attention on another offensive player, so that was really the big thing.”
Expectations for both teams will only continue to rise from here as the countdown to Week 1 on August 30 begins. Full-contact practice on Saturday, followed by respective preseason games on August 22, are the next big milestones for the Cougars and Tigers.
“I always tell our kids, practice doesn’t start until Saturday. The rest of it is just about learning what to do so they can play fast on Saturday and show their coaches what they can do,” Schmidt said.
NOTES — The following teams will have scrimmages this week: Navasota (starts after 5:30 p.m. Friday sub-varsity scrimmage vs. Giddings); Madisonville (starts after 5:00 p.m. Friday sub-varsity scrimmage at China Spring); Caldwell (7:00 p.m. Thursday vs. Anderson-Shiro); Franklin (6:30 p.m. Friday vs. Palestine Westwood); Cameron Yoe (6:00 p.m. Friday at Waco Robinson vs. Robinson/Whitney); Rockdale (7:00 p.m. Friday vs. Rogers); Lexington (6:15 p.m. Thursday vs. Schulenburg/Columbus); Centerville (6:00 p.m. Friday vs. New Waverly); Leon (7:00 p.m. Friday at Moody vs. Blooming Grove/Moody); Normangee (6:30 p.m. Friday at Dawson); Hearne (Friday, 7 p.m. vs. Somerville); Bremond (Friday, 6 p.m. at Snook); Iola (Friday, 6 p.m. at Brazos Christian vs. St. John/Brazos Christian); Milano (Friday, 6 p.m. vs. Thorndale); Burton (Thursday, 6 p.m. at Hempstead); Calvert (Friday, 6 p.m. at Richland Springs); St. Joseph (Friday, 6 p.m. at Westlake Lutheran Prep vs. Divine Savior); Allen Academy (Friday, 6 p.m. vs. multiple teams).
