Jerry Kill isn't sure who invented two-a-days, but he's pretty certain it was an accident.
They were supposed to be much crueler.
"When I played football, we had three-a-day practices," the Gophers coach said of the tradition of stacking practice upon practice during training camp. "You got out in the sun and you just got to work and got through them."
That's his players' attitude today, too, even though it means devoting 14-16 hours a day to football.
"It's about mental toughness, and that's a huge part of football," said junior center Zach Mottla. "Two-a-days definitely brings that out in everybody, and you find out who can push through it."
And not just among the 105 students in cleats and helmets, either. The players are the focus, but two-a-days are a grind for coaches and staff, interns and assistants, cooks and cleaners, video-camera operators and trash-can emptiers.
By 2 a.m., John Schiltz is in his kitchen at Lake Elmo Inn, cooking breakfast for a football battalion. By 5:30, Andy Harris has unlocked the football complex, turned on the lights, restocked the coaches' offices and made sure every uniform is clean, sorted and distributed. He has to hurry, because by 6 a.m., the entire coaching staff has arrived and called a meeting to strategize that day's practices. By 6:30, Kyle Gergely has mapped out where every traffic cone and blocking dummy must be placed for that day's two dozen drills, and by 7 a.m., Ed Lochrie has scheduled more than 50 medical treatments for banged-up veterans.
"There's a whole team in place," Harris said, "before the actual team arrives."