Prince Has Kansas State Working Nights

[NT03]

Kansas State coach Ron Prince has been around college students long enough to know their nocturnal habits.

Kansas State University

Kansas State's lone day practice comes on Saturdays.

That's why Prince has scheduled most of his team's spring practices at night, hoping it will give his players a chance to work on their studies during the afternoon. KSU's spring practices begin at 8:20 p.m., and the work concludes by 10:30 p.m.

"Nowadays, most of them don't go to bed until midnight anyway," Prince said. "We just figured this would be the best way to let them keep their schoolwork up while they were practicing. I'm as confirmed as anybody that they are in school to get their degrees."

After watching his team struggle through a 5-7 record last season, Prince has closed all of his practices, with the exception of the spring game. He has joked to reporters that he is throwing the Berlin Wall around his team this spring for the night practices.

"I love having open practices, and I know the players love to participate in them," Prince said. "But we didn't play well late last year. I'm not going to reward them with having open practices. We're going to work in solitude. I don't like to have this attitude, but I wanted to make a point to the players. I want to see how they perform and react to this."

The late work is cutting into the players' television and video-game-playing time, but quarterback Josh Freeman understands his coach's reasoning.

"I don't particularly like this, but it's being done for the betterment of the team," Freeman said. "We're working out at night, which is a time you might normally want to relax after school and practice. But it's kind of a blessing. We don't have anything going on during the afternoon, so I either kick back or do my papers then."

The Wildcats are working this spring without leading returning wide receiver Deon Murphy, who is being held out of practice because of academics. Murphy led the Big 12 in punt returns and also produced 57 receptions last season.

"This could end up being a blessing in disguise for us," Freeman said. "It should benefit us by building some depth at the position. Deon's a great player and a burner, but we're having a bunch of other guys step up. We're getting guys a lot of reps, and they are really improving with the playing time."