Neuheisel on practice-to-game corollary

I have been a bit surprised by the fluctuation of intensity and quality of UCLA's practices from week to week, and apparently it's been noticed by several readers. The practices before the Houston and Texas games, particularly on those Wednesday practices, were great. Loud, energetic, but more importantly, with a sense of purpose. You watched guys who understood their responsibilities, but went above and beyond. You saw practice players, scout-team guys, going all-out to prepare the starters. You even saw starters take on added responsibilities, or at least, do their jobs with increased vigor.

Before the Kansas State, Stanford and Washington State games, I didn't see that level of intensity. More importantly, I didn't hear it. As a (sort of) former (bad) football player (I guess you can call what I did "football"), I know the importance of a loud, energetic practice. We had some bad ones at Thousand Oaks High, and they translated on Friday nights. Same thing here.

So after Wednesday's practice - which was fantastic, probably the second best I've seen this year to the Wednesday before the Texas game - I asked Coach Neuheisel about it.

"I hope you're right, because that means we're going to play well on Saturday. The lesson is to try to bring a great practice every time. Now, it's not always going to be whooping and hollering, and I don't think coaches can ask for that all the time. But you do have to bring a level of - and I know these are college kids - a level of professionalism, an appreciation for the game so that you're going to give your best and you're going to fly around and concentrate and make the right adjustments. You have to, as I like to say, stack another day, in anticipation of when you have to go let it go. There are lots of distractions right now - we've got Pauley Pavilion under siege, we've got weather issues - but I think the way our guys deal with that is impressive."

Well, sometimes.