The University of Northern Colorado football team started spring practices Tuesday, a key milestone in preparation for the 2025 season.
The first game is a little under five months away, and the Bears are approaching the 14 practices over the rest of the month as if preparing for a game each week.
UNC, then, will be out on the field three days a week for the next four weeks. Two more practices will follow in the last week of the month leading to the spring game in early May.
The blue-gold intrasquad game is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, May 3 at Nottingham Field.
NCAA Division I teams are allowed 15 on-field practices over 34 days and no more than 12 of those may involve contact, according to NCAA rules.
Eight of those 12 contact practices can have tackling and no more than three of the eight may include 11 on 11 scrimmages.
University of Northern Colorado Franky Morales goes into pass protection during the first day of Spring football practice on the UNC campus Tuesday April 8, 2025.(Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Tuesday was the first practice, but it wasn’t UNC’s first workout. Not by a long shot. The players and staff have been together since the start of the spring semester at other football-related activities, such as weight training, running, film study, alignments, assignments and communication.
“Blocking and tackling,” UNC head coach Ed Lamb said of spring ball. “That’s what spring ball is about. All that stuff’s great (the other work), but the guys like the contact part of the sport too.”
Dominic Butts, a defensive lineman from Severance, said the players through the winter have also had walk-throughs and other player-run workouts leading them to Day 1 of spring ball.
“I think our foundation was a lot stronger coming into today, rather than just dropping us into spring ball,” Butts said. “It was a very good day.”
Butts, who will be a junior in the fall, focused on gaining more weight and strength since the end of last season. He started the 2024 season at about 235 pounds. At 6-foot-5, Butts is close to 254 pounds which is the heaviest he’s been in his life, he said. He’s aiming to add another nine or 10 pounds over the summer.
“I was little,” he said. “Now I’m a little less little.”
The spring practices began later in the spring this year. Head coach Ed Lamb said he wanted to give the players more time in the weight room. Lamb’s program is based on strength and weight training.
The university’s spring break was the week of March 17, and Lamb said also he wanted the players to have two weeks of training before starting spring ball.
University of Northern Colorado head football coach Ed Lamb looks over his team during the first day of Spring football practice on the UNC campus on Tuesday April 8, 2025.(Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)The schedule change around the spring means the team will have its meetings in the morning. The players then go to class and return to football for practice in the early afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — just like on game weeks. Fridays will be a walk through and Saturdays will be for scrimmaging.
“It should feel like a game week,” Lamb said.
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