Wiedmer: Two-a-days aren't quite what they used to be for Mocs

Talking to certain members of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program Wednesday evening, you got the feeling that this two-a-day practice stuff isn't quite what it used to be, when real men walked uphill to and from school while wearing popcorn boxes for shoes and water was only available to those who dug their own wells.

Ah, those were the good ol' days.

But UTC's current two-a-day format, such as it was, the last of the two of them - yes, two of them TOTAL - having ended Tuesday, somehow left the 2015 Mocs in fairly good spirits, with surprisingly bouncy steps and strong smiles.

"I guess a part of me will miss them," grinned senior quarterback Jacob Huesman as he walked onto Scrappy Moore Field. "A very small part."

Added fellow senior Josh Freeman, also smiling when asked if he would miss them: "Not at all."

But the fact they could even smile at the experience was a pretty big change over the two-a-days so many of their coaches experienced.

"Back in the day," began UTC assistant Rusty Wright, the former Moc who played for three different coaches - Buddy Nix, Tommy West and Buddy Green - "you worked out for a week before the varsity got here if you were a freshman. And that meant there were only 40 to 45 of you going twice a day. Then the varsity came and you probably had two more weeks of two-a-days. Your legs were dead."

Added Shawn Bryson, the captain of Tennessee's 1998 national championship team and the current UTC running backs coach: "You didn't do much but eat, sleep and drink football. Back then, two-a-days lasted a lot longer. I can't remember a lot about it, probably because I don't want to remember a lot. I just know I had no energy."

Then there's Jacob Huesman's dad, Russ, the UTC head coach and former Mocs player from those prehistoric times at the dawn of the 1980s.

"I can tell you this," the coach said, "(Mocs assistant) Joe Lee Dunn would run these pursuit drills, these punt return drills while everybody else was getting a water break. The offensive guys would hold up cups of water while we were still practicing and shout stuff like, 'Oh, this is so good.' I don't think I got a water break during two-a-days the whole time I was here."

Yet if Huesman has any hidden desire to inflict similar pain on the new generation, he keeps it to himself.

He even admitted Wednesday evening that his chief goal during the preseason is, "To have every one of them (healthy) for Sept. 5. I want to make sure we have them all for Saturdays."

So with an assist from far more stringent NCAA rules about such things, the Mocs staged but two two-a-days, then sent their players off to the movies on Wednesday afternoon.

"I think almost all of us went to see 'Mission Impossible,'" said Jacob Huesman, just before he began to hum the movie's iconic theme song - "Da, da, da-da, da, da, da-da "

And no less a grumpy old soul than Wright reluctantly admitted of the new Mocs on the block: "These guys are in better shape than we ever were. All the work they do during the offseason, especially in the summer - they don't need two-a-days to get in shape."

So maybe it really is for the better. Maybe the hard work is just less concentrated, spread over 12 months instead of four or five. Maybe today's athlete stays in such good shape, he doesn't need two-a-days to get back in shape.

But for those who want to believe these new Mocs are more coddled and pampered than their long-ago predecessors, we turn this column over to the head coach.

Asked what most disappointed him so far in this preseason, the man who was denied so much as a single cup of water during all those ancient Augusts said the following: "One, we haven't gotten any Mayfield ice cream. (Assistant coach Will) Healy's supposed to have connections with Mayfield. And two, (assistant) Tony Brown's been promising us frozen (non-alcoholic) drinks and we haven't seen any of those, either."

Ice cream? Frozen drinks? At preseason practice?

In the good ol' days, that's what was known as a real mission impossible.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.