SportsLine wire reports
April 9, 1999

BOULDER, Colo. -- It's a war out there -- an everyday battle to hit or be hit. Smash hard, and survive at the days end with your pride and dignity. Don't give full effort, and you will find yourself on the ground.

It's an image of a torn battlefield as well as new CU coach Gary Barnett's everyday practice.

Barnett has had a total of nine spring practices and one scrimmage with his new players, but from day one has set a different tone to be met and it's about being physical.

"I don't know if I'm trying to give a new feel, I'm just trying to give mine," Barnett said. "We work hard; it's a business. You have to learn to play that way mentally and physically. If we're going to play the Nebraskas and the A&Ms, we're going to have to play physical."

Barnett has set up practices a certain way to emphasize this battle of who can hit harder. Each practice features a lot of one-on-one drills where players go at each other.

ALSO, THE TEMPO IS INCREASED. Instead of stopping every play to talk about what happened, and what went wrong, a lot of that is done in the locker room.

The coaching staff studies the practice film and then makes changes in meetings and before the practice begins. This enables practices to move faster and gives the players more repetitions.

"In order to be a champion, you have to make the decision to do the right things," new quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson said. "At this level, against the people that you play in our conference and play on a national scope, you have to out work them, you have to out play them, and just have the heart to get it done.

"And that's a decision. Everyone has the ability and whether you make that decision is the question. What we try to do with the structure of practice is put that decision out there every minute of practice and teach them to get through it and excel at it," he said.

So far, the players have made the decision to accept the staffs philosophy, showing up to practice with the intensity of a champion.

WITH EVERY TACKLE, THERE ARE four defenders pouncing on the ball. At least one helmet comes flying off by the days end. And the running backs take hits that make on-lookers cringe but still keep churning for extra yards.

"It's definitely a change," defensive end Brady McDonnell said. "The coaches have me going like a mad man. Everyone is just trying to play real hard and if you are not going full speed, you are called out."

The physical play even extends to the wide receivers. During the Rick Neuheisel era, the receivers merely caught balls and ran routes. Now, they too are concentrating on making contact.

What does this all do? It adds toughness, the coaches said.

It takes toughness to catch a pass across the middle, to make a stiff block downfield, to not fall down after one hit and then go for 10 more. It takes toughness when it's third and three, to pound out those three yards on the ground. It takes toughness when you need a third down stop on defense, to plow through the offensive line and make it.

"THIS WHOLE SPRING, we're working on not only making myself tougher but this whole offense tougher," quarterback Mike Moschetti said. "If we have that toughness, we have the confidence to win games. Last year, I was hurt, guys on the o-line were hurt, and we just have to suck it up and play."

The team is responding partly because it's sick of slowly falling from where this program once was.

"When Barnett got here, he wrote RTD (Return to Dominance) on the board," wide receiver Marcus Stiggers said. "That's what we go by around here. This program has been on a pedestal and we're trying to return to where we were. We're at the point where everyone is excited. Everybody has a whole new attitude; we're all fired up. And right now, we're just trying to meet expectations."

At the beginning of the spring practice season, Barnett gave his players an analogy that each practice was like 15 pebbles, 15 stepping stones to get across a lake.

The analogy emphasizes each practice as crucial and from the sounds heard from the parking lot, the players are taking it to heart.