Fighting at practice/The Great Bear Crawl

Aug 10, 2023, 8:29 PM

I guess everyone has seen my tweet (or X?) by now about fighting during the W drill at practice today. I've heard that practices have been very competitive and everybody has been going at it. That's all good to hear because I think the best teams have that fighting spirit to them. And that made me think about the 2018 team, which we know won a title. I have heard the story before, but called a former player tonight to make sure I have the facts straight.

Practices were chippy that year, and the DL and OL had been going at it for a few weeks. Remember, that OL had guys like Matt Bockhorst and Gage Cervenka and Sean Pollard and John Simpson. The DL had Dexter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell, and we all know they loved to get chippy.

Well, one day it all boiled over. Something happened fairly early in practice and Big Dex and Bockhorst, egged on by Wilkins, went at it. Epic fight. But they got them separated, and Dabo told them that if they had so much energy they had to fight, he would work it out of them.

So he made the entire team do bear crawls. Bear crawls, for 100 yards, are brutal. You are on your fingertips and your toes, and you go the length of the field that way. Did they do it once or twice? Nope. One OL told they did it for eight or nine periods, and players had trouble walking the next day. But they stopped fighting and started hating Dabo and that turned into a championship club. A lot of people have told me that was the day that team really became a TEAM and was the turning point of the season.

Anyway, I remembered that today, and thought I would share it. I will share it again in the morning.