ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Once upon a time, in the Bo Schembechler days and again in the late Jim Harbaugh era, the word out of Michigan football practice was that it was harder than the games. That seems to be returning under new head coach Kyle Whittingham.
And for the players on team 137, it's ramping up.
In the 11th practice of fall camp, Whittingham took things to another level. Now, the team is working on long drives at the end of practice -- when the team is at its most exhausted. And that's something that, along with the offseason gains made under strength coach Doug Elisaia, the team feels is going to pay dividends this fall.
"We're more conditioned, if you want me to be honest," junior running back and team captain Jordan Marshall said. "I think we're put in a position where we're gonna be able to beat teams in the third and fourth quarter, just because of how hard we're working at practice. And I know that might sound silly, but we had a long, long drive today. Which we've been doing is like 14 plays, no subs, no anything. And you just go.
"Like ****** ody cares if you're tired. You gotta fight through it, and that's preparing us for when we do have a long drive, or it is maybe there's a running back hurting. You're the only one that can go. It's preparing you for those situations. And we had it at the dead end of practice, last period -- 14 plays, ones versus ones. And that's what you're here to do. ****** ody in that stadium cares that you're tired. ****** ody cares that you're hurting. ****** ody cares. They just want to see us win. So for us to come out here and do things like that, I think it shows a lot of Coach Whitt, what he thinks. And again, I think we're gonna be better conditioned to go out here and beat teams."

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