JACOB KONST/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona football head coach Mike Stoops runs through a drill with strong safety Gary Shepard during spring practice yesterday at the football practice facility adjacent to Sancet Stadium. Yesterday's workout was Stoops' first at the helm of the Wildcats. He was hired as head coach after the team finished with an overall record of 2-10 last year.

Players, staff excited to hit field this spring

The Mike Stoops era began yesterday with the first day of spring football, and coaches and players are talking like Arizona football is ready to end its five-year cold streak.

Stoops said he was excited about his first practice as a head coach and his first with the Arizona team.

"It felt great. I was excited today and it was fun to get the first practice out of the way. I couldn't be more pleased with our team's attitude and effort right now," Stoops said.

Sophomore running back Mike Bell noticed that the new coaches had more intensity.

"They want more out of you. They want you to hustle more," he said. "They want everybody moving. I like that."

"They made it clear - they don't want walking back to the huddle, walking back to the sideline. Everything's got to be a full-speed sprint."

Freshman quarterback Ryan O'Hara said he liked the longer sessions of team drills.

"It seems like the pace is a little quicker out here. We get in and out of drills so quickly, and we don't waste a lot of time," O'Hara said. "We have a long team period. I like that we get a lot of scrimmage time."

Many of the Wildcats echoed the change in intensity.

"It's been one day and we didn't have pads on. It was really intense, but a confident intensity," said sophomore Brad Brittain.

"Everybody has their own style. You can coach in different ways, but these guys are a lot more intense," sophomore Darrell Brooks said.

Bell said the players are responding positively to the new method of instruction.

"I don't hear as much complaining, excuses, whining, pointing fingers. I hear less and less of that. I really appreciate that, because we won't get anywhere like that. People are working hard, doing stuff on their own," Bell said.

Bell said the players are having fun while working harder and were very excited when Stoops was hired. Sophomore quarterback Nic Costa also pointed out an attitude change.

"We've never had so many want to stay after practice," Costa said. "It's a fresh start for everybody."

Stoops said Arizona's cupboard is hardly bare of talent.

"I think we're very comparable to a lot of teams. Obviously, our team speed needs to improve overall, and that's the thing that we've worked hard on over the winter. But after that I was really impressed with Mike Bell. Mike has a chance to be a special player and we have to make sure we create enough offense for Mike to be effective," Stoops said.

Bell liked the comment.

"Yeah, I like that. I want them to be able to count on me, I want them to know that I'll do whatever it takes to win," he said.

Stoops, who said wants to have 75 percent of the offense and defense finalized by the end of the 15 practices, was happy with the progress made in implementing the Wildcats' spread offense and 4-3 defense.

"It was a great first day. We got a lot of good reps. We had a lot of stuff done on both sides of the ball. To go out there and do formations and make adjustments was really good," Stoops said. "I thought overall, our execution on both sides of the ball was really good."