Georgia State’s first spring practice is intense

Players were running and coaches were yelling during Georgia State’s first spring football practice Wednesday.

They weren’t just moving to combat the 30-degree temperatures and leg-stiffening breezes. They were on their toes because new coach Trent Miles wants a quicker pace. Woe to the player who walked back to a huddle. He would get an earful from Miles or whichever assistant saw the transgression.

“We are pretty intense,” Miles said.

Despite a few fumbles, which may been the result of the temperatures or simply nerves, Miles liked what he saw during the first of the 15 practices allowed by the NCAA in the spring.

“I saw a lot of kids that want to do a good job,” he said. “We are still in process of teaching them our tempo and a sense of urgency and taking care of the football. I saw a lot kids that had good attitudes that want to do well.

“We have to establish more competition, teach them our schemes and practice and play the way we expect them to and get them to raise their expectation level.”

Miles replaced Bill Curry, the program’s first coach who retired last season after the team went 1-10. Miles is familiar with what it takes to build programs, having turned around the fortunes of his alma mater, Indiana State. He took a program that had won one game in the three seasons before he arrived in 2008 and led them to a winning record in his third season.

Instead of the bullhorn that Curry used to direct practice, Miles simply yelled out encouragement or admonishment Wednesday, as did his assistants, as they taught or watched different drills.

“Two completely different coaching styles,” senior Michael Davis said. “Miles is going to get after you vocally, whereas Curry would pull you to the side and tell you what you did wrong. They both get the message across, just two different styles of delivery.”

The setup for practice also was different. The team worked on special teams first, then went in for meetings focused on offense or defense before hitting the practice field again to work on what was discussed.

“I like the way we do that because you get to go in and focus on one thing and then come back out and it’s all offense or defense,” Davis said.

Players wore helmets but not pads, so Wednesday’s practice focused on fundamentals and the first “live” installments of the new offensive and defensive schemes. The team is expected to put on pads Saturday, which will be the third practice.