Rich Rodriguez cancels practice, and the 'Cats go wild
We all know that great football players love to play the game.
And to be great, they need to practice.
But that's not to say that they love to practice.
Games are fun; practice is hard.
Two weeks of nothing but practice borders on drudgery.
And sometimes, nothing gets a player more fired up for practice than not practicing.
At least that was Rich Rodriguez's theory on Thursday afternoon.
Rodriguez surprised his players and even his coaching staff at Arizona on Thursday by calling the players over 15 minutes into the session, lecturing them about the importance of competing and being uncomfortable, and then canceling practice -- under the guise of "how am I going to make you uncomfortable when there's cloud cover like this. I can't make you uncomfortable when it's this cool.
"So you know what? Practice is canceled, get your ... out of here."
The Wildcats' reaction was epic. (Caution: video includes adult language)
Rodriguez told reporters later that the only person who knew what was up his sleeve was the trainer in charge of scheduling meal times. "If you're going to have a secret, you can't tell everybody, right?"
With an unusual schedule this season of 12 consecutive games and no bye week, Rodriguez acknowledged the need to keep the team fresh.
"They had more enthusiasm right there than I've seen in two weeks," he said. "Hopefully that'll carry into tomorrow morning's practice. ... This'll hopefully get 'em rejuvenated.
