DeNarius McGhee faced plenty of loud late-game situations in 2010
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
CATS IN CAMP: Day Fifteen
8/19/2011 3:38:00 PM | Football
Bobcats Hold Loud Friday Morning Practice
Bobcat players and coaches could barely hear themselves think Friday morning. And that was the point.
Capping a week in which audio crews tested the new Bobcat Stadium scoreboard and sound system, the Bobcats staged Friday morning's practice with music blaring through the new system. Bobcat coach Rob Ash said his plan worked as he figured.
“We wanted the sound loud enough that there would be no way to hear ourselves so we had to communicate non-verbally,” Ash said with a smile. “It worked well. I thought the guys handled it fairly well, too. DeNarius remained calm, the guys made some nice catches, I thought the offense handled it well.”
While the focus of most crowd noise situations falls on the offense, Ash said it's also a defensive drill. “A lot of people think that crowd noise is just an offensive thing, but it's not,” he said. “It's a factor for the defense, too. We want our home crowd to be loud in big situations when the opposition has the ball, so our defense has to get used to communicating without words.”
After what Ash call an “aggressive, physical” – not to mention loud – practice in the morning on Friday, the Bobcat coaching staff gave the team the afternoon off from the planned two-a-day session. “We thought it was a good idea after going hard in the morning,” Ash said. “They worked hard and this is the right time to give them a break.”
Ash also said Friday that, after reviewing video of Wednesday's scrimmage, it was much as he thought on the field after it ended. “The defense did a great job,” he said. “I thought those guys tackled very well. There were only six missed tackles in an 80-play scrimmage. They were in the right place assignment-wise and there were very few errors.”
Offensively, Ash said that the flaws that surfaced Wednesday are fixable. “Offensively it was more scheme issues that we'd normally take care of in the game plan than anything physical.”
After taking Friday afternoon off, MSU returns to the practice field Saturday for a morning practice. The team hosts its annual Family Fun Day at 2 pm on the Bobcat Practice Fields
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