The football team was put to the test last week as they ended “Crucible Week” which was a camp headed up by the strength and conditioning program.

Dave Lawson, the director of strength and conditioning said the “Crucible Week” was an idea he had in order to change things up for players used to the “same old” working out.

“We just changed up the way we lifted, the human body adapts. The change was just to do something different,” he said.

He said they focused on many changes both mentally and physically.

Lawson said they worked on changing up the rep scheme, but he said he also wanted the players to work on their mental toughness as well.

“I am worried about the mental state of the players as well. You have to push them hard but not too hard everyday, (it’s part of) understanding the philosophy,” Lawson said.

Defensive end Sam Williams said the week not only had everyone working hard but brought a sense of teamwork into the mix.

“It was fun, but at the same time hard. It brought us together because it was a little bit different,” he said.

Lawson said the entire point of the week was to get rid of the monotany of a typical workout.

“It spikes interest in the kids. (The typical workout) is like eating PB and J for a week, after six days you get tired of it,” he said. “It’s a way to change it up.”

Lawson changed it up not only with the types of workouts but also the times of workouts.

For the team’s last session they got together at 12:01 a.m. last Thursday morning to push a Humvee, borrowed from the ROTC, out of Kelly/Shorts Stadium and around campus for five miles.

The team was put into eight different groups which went one at a time for one minute pushing the Humvee as fast as they could, forcing the other groups to stay right behind.

Williams said he wasn’t expecting to push a Humvee and the idea was amusing to him.

“Every couple of minutes, I would stop and think ‘we are pushing a Humvee through this campus,’” he said.

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E-mail the author: Eric Dresden