March 15, 2008

RUSTON, La. - The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs made the first step to leaving 2007 behind and working on this upcoming football season with their first official workout of the spring Saturday. The `Dawgs jumped right into implementing the offensive and defensive schemes and had little hiccups on the first day of practice.

"One thing this allows you to do is reflect on our first day of practice last year and we are light years ahead of where we were," head coach Derek Dooley said. "Everyone knows what we expect in practice and I was real pleased with the enthusiasm and intensity of the team."

As opposed to last season when Dooley, the players and staff were all learning how to operate together, this year everyone was on the same page as soon as the first whistle blew. The question left unanswered would be how fired up the players come out for practice.

Dooley said the players did not disappoint and was pleased with their efforts on offense, defense and special teams. He was especially, proud of how well the quarterbacks and receivers tuned in together completing routes.

Another benefit of Dooley entering his second season and having all three of his coordinators returning was the staff did not have to spend time teaching the system. Instead, the players and staff could begin installing immediately.

"We have an installation plan of six days and on the seventh day we'll scrimmage and see where we're at," Dooley said. "We're on our normal installation like we're in training camp. We don't ease into anything. We're going to install and keep pushing."

The `Dawgs will continue with spring practices until T-Day and the annual spring game on April 12 at 1 p.m. at Joe Aillet Stadium. All practices are closed to the public.