Hlas column: Summer conditioning vital for Iowa football team, but not 24/7

IOWA CITY - As a well-known freedom-fighter, I recoil when I hear of college football players forced into indentured servitude in the summertime.

What kind of tyranny is it that forces these young men to sweat and strain for their sport in the summertime while the rest of the student body is free to go make money or catch fish?

Well, said Hawkeye fullback Brett Morse on Tuesday, his summer “is awesome.”

“It's summer, for one thing,” he said. “I work out in the morning. I don't have any summer classes. I'm just hanging out at my house, and doing a little bit of umpiring.”

Morse umpires Babe Ruth baseball in North Liberty and Little League ball in Iowa City.

“The money's OK,” he said, “but it's more just for fun. It's something I've done since seventh- or eighth-grade. I feel I'm a good umpire.”

At 6-foot-3, 238 pounds, who's going to tell him he's not?

Iowa football players are expected to be in Iowa City for seven weeks of the summer. Four weekdays are are for weightlifting, the fifth for “skills and drills.” Players pick a block of time in the morning, spend two-and-a-half or three hours at the Iowa football complex, and then go live their lives.

“I'm here at 6 and out by 8:30 or 9,” said defensive tackle Karl Klug. “Then I go to my job in Cedar Rapids with Youth Leadership Program. I'm a counselor. It's for underprivileged kids, teaching them leadership skills.”

That program began in Cedar Rapids 17 years ago. Many UI student-athletes have worked in the program.

Klug says he's home by 3 p.m., and can then “hang out and do whatever.”

“During the season, there's no time at all, really. It's football, school, football, school.”

In August, coaches love to tell the public how hard their guys worked in the summer. But while summer is serious football business for the players, there isn't as much of it as from August through the expected bowl game.

“We have three weeks off in May, another week in July, and a week at the end of July,” said punter Ryan Donahue. “So we're here seven weeks out of 12 or 13 (between the end of the spring semester and the start of fall camp in August).

“We want to be here. We want to be getting better. I think our goal is to outwork people in the summer so that will show up on Saturdays.”

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi has no other pressing engagement in the summer except his football stuff. A summer bum, however, he isn't. He gathers receivers for throwing drills. And ...

“I try to watch (football) film every day,” Stanzi said. “There's no excuse not to. If I don't watch film every day, I'm pretty much slacking.”

He watches his team's games from last season, and the games of the teams on Iowa's 2010 schedule.

“The more you watch, the easier it is to pick up things,” said Stanzi. “I've seen a lot of guys watching film this summer. It doesn't guarantee you success, but the more repetitions you take mentally, it can only help.”

Stanzi said he's never been kicked out of the football building for staying too late, “but I've walked home in the dark a couple times.”

It's not like the guy doesn't get to a movie theater or pizza parlor every now and then. But football is his thing.

“I don't need an escape,” he said. “If you really enjoy it, it pretty much is your escape.”

For a good recent Q&A on Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle, I recommend this post by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/13381/big-ten-strength-qa-iowas-chris-doyle