While most students and professors are packing for home or vacations, the members of the Ohio football program will be settling in for a summer of conditioning and preparation.
Coach Frank Solich and his staff work through the summer. The coaches get a break in July, but before that they spend the month of June tying up loose ends from spring practice and getting ready for the season.
The offensive and defensive coordinators will be sitting down with the offensive and defensive staffs
recruiting coordinator Pete Germano said, and they will be looking at what we call spring cut-ups -all the various plays all the scrimmages all the things that we did in spring. They will look into what we did well
what we did not so well and what we need to work on and get ready for the fall.
With a few exceptions, the Ohio football team will remain on campus this summer. Players get a week off after finals, and most use this time to make a rare trip home before returning to start workouts. The biggest factor that keeps some players from staying the summer is financial constraints, but the football program does what it can to help with paying for summer classes or finding jobs for players.
Coaches are not permitted to be present at practices, so strength and conditioning director Sonny Sano oversees summer workouts. He leads the team in a variety of strength, conditioning and agility exercises, as well as football drills, to prepare for the upcoming season.
Linebacker Tyler Russ has stayed on campus the past three summers.
For me
there's nothing else I'd rather do than work out and get ready for the football season
Russ said. It's an opportunity to stay here and build friendships that last forever.
NCAA guidelines forbid coaches from requiring student-athletes to stay for the summer, but nearly all players stay. Germano said he expects the percentage of players staying in Athens this summer to be the highest in years.
Guys want to impress (Solich)
tight end Corey Logan said. They're going to do what it takes to put a smile on his face.
There's just an understanding (about staying)
defensive lineman Seth Ream said. With the new coach
everybody's putting in an extra effort.
Ream, a former walk-on, will be spending his first summer in Athens. In past years, he did not have a scholarship to pay for summer classes, so he has gone home to work. This summer, though, he and his teammates will be spending plenty of quality time in the weight room and on the practice field.
In order to be on this football team
he said, we should stay here to get stronger and be closer.
When considering the alternative, Logan recognizes the significance of taking part in summer workouts.
I'm pretty proud to be here this summer
he said. It takes pride to be here. Not everybody can stay. If you're here it's because you want to be here. Being here in the summertime you form a bond with your teammates and get a better understanding of what the team needs to be.
