Iowa State opened its spring football practice Wednesday — the 12th year that Dan McCarney has led the program. McCarney says he’s pleased with the first day of practice, the tempo, the attitude, kids wanting to be coached, which he says carried over from the bowl practice last season.
The rules allow 15 spring practices — with three of those in shorts and shirts — and the other 12 in full pads. McCarney says you can take eight of the 12 practices for full or partial scrimmages and he says they’ll take the full opportunity to scrimmage. McCarney says this is the time they find out who’ll step forward to fill the holes left from last season.
McCarney says there are a lot of decisions to be made on who the best players are, with a lot of those jobs on defense. He says the get in all sorts of game-type situations to bring out the competition to bring out the best in players. One area where the coach is happy to see competition is runningback, where the ball carriers appear to be in good shape.
McCarney says they look “real healthy” unlike last fall where the had a lot of injuries. McCarney says Jason Scales is back and looking fast and quick after missing all of last year. Iowa State’s spring game is April 15th.