Aug. 6, 2007

by Cassie Arner, Illinois Sports Information

Wow, it was a hot one today! The trainers keep track of the temperatures at practice right before each period and I glanced at the thermometer before the start and it read 92 degrees, with 77 percent humidity. That put the heat index at about 106 degrees!

Today was the last day of split sessions, so the Orange group drew the wrong end of the stick, getting the hot weather to start the day. By the time the Blue group arrived for special teams, we had gotten some decent cloud cover. If you are wondering why I am talking so much about weather, it is because that seemed to be hot topic today (no pun intended).

Well, going back to the topic of split practices, the players are, of course, excited to have the entire team come together for the rest of camp. The number of reps each player is taking will go down quite a bit starting tomorrow. Coach Zook was extremely complimentary of our strength coach, Lou Hernandez, and his staff for the way the players are conditioned, because if they weren't in the best shape, there is no way we could have split the practices the way we did.

Well, the upcoming schedule goes something like this...two more days of single sessions, with the pads coming out on Wednesday. Both of those practices will begin at 3:30 pm.