ABILENE – The calendar might only be nearing mid-June, but at NCAA Division I campuses across the country, football season has already started.
ACU is no exception as almost 100 players began working out two weeks in preparation for the 2018 season, which begins in 81 days when the Wildcats take on Baylor on Sept. 1 at McLane Stadium in Waco. The Wildcats will continue for six more weeks before a short break leading up to the Aug. 2 reporting date for fall workouts.
The Wildcats will then go through 26 practices in 28 days before they open the season by taking on the Bears for the first time in program history. ACU has never played a Big 12 opponent on the football field. The last time they played against a team that's currently in the Big 12 was Sept. 10, 1949, when the Wildcats dropped a 20-0 decision at Texas Tech.
ACU is 11-36 all-time against FBS opponents with the last win coming Sept. 13, 2014, when ACU knocked off Troy, 38-35, in Troy, Ala.
The players are currently lifting and going through conditioning drills under the supervision of strength coach
Bret Miguez, while also going through position meetings. The players are then participating on their own in 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 drills.
"We're really trying to grow as a team from last summer to this one," second-year head coach
Adam Dorrel said. "We want to pick up where we left off from the spring and continue to get better in terms of our team interaction and by becoming mentally and physically tougher."
Dorrel said the most important facet of the summer workouts is continuing the build the team's mental toughness, or "grit" as he called it.
"We've got to continue to improve in our ability to handle adversity," he said. "My main concern coming out of last season and going into the 2018 season is what we're going to do when we get knocked down. How quickly do we get off the mat and come back fighting? Certainly we feel like we're making great progress on offense, defense and special teams, and we'll see that on the field starting in August. But, just as important as those areas, we need to see improvement in the intangibles like mental toughness, football IQ and situational awareness."
Dorrel instituted a Leadership Council of 22 players in February and those players have met with Dorrel three times per month since then to talk about team issues, getting everyone on the same page and how to make others around them better both on and off the field.
Now in his second season as the head coach, Dorrel recently said he finally believes this team and this program is his as they get ready for the 2018 season. In fact, of the 113 players on the roster in 2016 — the season before Dorrel took over — 80 of them are no longer with the program. And of the 127 that were on the roster last year in Dorrel's first season, 61 of them are gone through either graduation or attrition.
"This finally feels like 'our' team," Dorrel said. "As a coaching staff, we had so much fun in the spring because we're finally seeing guys we've recruited and signed and brought in to the program on the field, ready to contribute."
ACU has already added three offensive linemen to the mix this spring and summer with the potential to add one more. The Wildcats could also look to add a running back, a defensive back or two and two or three more defensive linemen.
