Football Across Minnesota: Predawn practices stir the senses in St. Paul

FOOTBALL ACROSS MINNESOTA | Week 9

Noah Bresson is a college senior, so his daily routine might as well be chiseled in stone. Awake at 5:15 a.m., in bed by 10 p.m.

Actually, that sounds more like a baker’s schedule than a college student’s.

“Once you get used to it, it’s not as bad,” Bresson said. “It’s a little bit of a sacrifice in your social life. You can’t stay up late hanging out with your buddies. You’ve got to go to bed or else you’re going to suffer the next day.”

In the predawn darkness in St. Paul most mornings, Bresson and his Macalester teammates are banging their pads and running routes while the rest of campus sleeps. The first whistle of practice blows at 6:15 a.m., so players arrive around 5:45 a.m. to get ready for the grind.

“Sometimes when that alarm goes off, you’re still like, what the heck are we doing?” Macalester coach Phil Nicolaides said, laughing. “I’m driving to work and [saying], ‘What we were thinking getting up this early?’ But then at 8 a.m., you’re like, this is the best.”

This was his idea.

Hired in 2022, Nicolaides found that his team had to share Macalester’s single turf field every afternoon with the men’s and women’s soccer teams. The football team often moved to a grass field to alleviate the logjam, but that setup was not as beneficial for teaching offensive and defensive concepts.

Since the team already had weight-lifting workouts in the morning, Nicolaides moved spring practices to early morning as a trial. They never returned to the afternoon.

“It used to be where every morning was a struggle,” said Bresson, a linebacker. “Now it’s just like clockwork.”

The benefits involve more than access to the turf field. Practice ends at 7:55 a.m. That gives players enough time to shower, grab a quick breakfast and get to class. Players have the rest of the day to focus on academics and their campus life.

“I like to think our guys show up to their classes and they’re wide awake,” Nicolaides said. “I think a lot of other college students are rolling out of bed and showing up in their PJs. That’s just one of those ripples that aligns with our values as a program in terms of getting these guys ready for life after college.”

Bresson had a morning class last fall right after practice. He wasn’t groggy.

“You’re sitting in your 8 a.m. class and everyone else is tired and dragging their self to class,” he said. “Us football guys are wired because we’ve been up moving around and getting our body awake. It’s a good way to start the day.”

Bresson learned to restructure his schedule so that he gets his homework and studying finished before the evening “because you can’t slack off in the day and work at night. We have all this time in the middle of the day, and you need to use it.”

The tradeoff, of course, is sleep. College kids stay up late, despite best intentions. Even the coach who instituted the plan faces similar challenges with time management.

“I’m in the weeds with them,” Nicolaides said. “I’ve got a young daughter at home. I want to spend a lot of time with her in the evenings. I have a second shift of work doing recruiting calls with kids on the West Coast. That can stretch a little later. It’s a battle I’m fighting myself. Do I watch one more episode of Netflix or do I go to bed and get closer to six or seven hours? It helps me empathize with what they’re going through.”

The Scots are winless this season, but Nicolaides believes there are lessons gained. Having all day to prioritize school without the interruption of football practice is important. The coach also stresses to players the importance of “editing behavior to align with goals.”

“If football is going to be important to you, you can’t be up until midnight,” he said. “When you’re walking to practice at 5:45 in the morning across campus and the temperatures are in the 30s or 40s, not everyone is doing that. But that’s part of the reason why it’s beneficial to do it.”

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FOOTBALL FAMILY

Windlan Hall played cornerback for the Vikings in the late 1970s under coach Bud Grant. On a given Friday night this fall, Hall could be found in the stands at Eden Prairie watching his son and grandson who share the same name coaching and playing for a team coached by Bud’s son.

“It was fortuitous, I guess,” the elder Hall told me.

Hall’s career with the Vikings was brief: one start in 19 games over two seasons after arriving in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers in 1976. Hall grew up in Los Angeles, met a woman named Brenda at Arizona State, married her before joining the Vikings, and the couple fell in love with Minnesota during their short stay.

“It was someplace that was new,” he said. “It was nice and stable and housing was a lot cheaper than it was in California, so we just stayed here.”

They made Minnesota home after his football career ended in 1978 and raised a family. Their son Windlan II played football at Burnsville High and the University of St. Thomas. He had multiple job offers after graduation to teach high school math and coach football in Texas.

The elder Windlan and his wife had stayed connected to the Vikings organization over the years. Brenda was talking to Grant’s son Mike one day about other matters and mentioned that Windlan II had offers to coach in Texas. Mike, Eden Prairie High’s legendary football coach, suggested a different idea: Have him come home and teach and coach at Eden Prairie. Windlan has worked on Grant’s staff since 2005 as defensive backs coach.

The Grant-Hall family connection has reached a third generation. Windlan III, who began attending Eden Prairie practices with his dad in second grade, is a sophomore starter at cornerback for the Eagles, who lost to Maple Grove in the Class 6A playoffs Friday.

“He’s got talent,” the elder Hall said. “We’ll see how good he becomes.”

The patriarch is 74 years old and widowed after Brenda died in January 2023 following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Years ago, the original Windlan had a diamond ring made with his first name engraved on it. He passed it down to his son after he graduated from St. Thomas.

Windlan III saw the ring for the first time when he was in first grade. He was feeling sad because kids were mispronouncing his name. The ring cheered him up.

“Our name is special,” Windlan II told him.

He’s waiting for the right time to pass it down to his son.

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‘THE PLAY’

No. 1 Moorhead led Alexandria 44-41 with 7½ minutes remaining in a section-final showdown in Class 5A on Friday. Alexandria couldn’t have been further from tying the game or taking the lead, with the ball at its own 1-yard line.

Alexandria coach Mike Empting provides the critical details of what will forever be known as “The Play” — a 99-yard touchdown pass from Chase Thompson to Mason Gorghuber for what proved to be the deciding points in a 48-44 win that sent the Cardinals to the state tournament:

“The previous play leading up to that play was a Moorhead punt,” Empting wrote in a text. “I decided not to put a return man back because it was at point on the field where I felt Moorhead could run a fake. They did indeed punt and the ball was downed inside the 1-yard line. …

“We tried to get some free yards by drawing Moorhead offsides, but they did not jump. We took a delay of game penalty and took the 6-inch yardage loss. …

“We had a conservative play called on the ensuing play … until we saw how they lined up against us.”

Moorhead committed safety help to wide receiver Evan Kludt on the left side and put six defenders in the box. That left man-to-man coverage on Alexandria’s three receivers lined up on the right side.

“Our offensive coaches immediately identified this and changed the play at the line,” Empting said.

Gorghuber, the inside receiver, gave a quick inside move to create separation on his route, and Thompson, standing deep in the end zone, dropped his pass into a perfect spot. Gorghuber caught the ball at the 25-yard line, kept his balance on a shoe-string tackle attempt at midfield and had an unobstructed path to the end zone.

“It was a great example of our team of offensive coaches working together and getting the communication to the field,” Empting wrote, “and the players perfectly executing the play!”

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WEEKEND REWIND

The five best things we saw on social media this weekend:

“It was crazy. I just saw him throw the ball. I didn’t know if I was going to get there or not. I just put my hand out and it stuck. So shoutout to my left hand for that.”

— Jordan Addison on his fantastic diving, one-handed touchdown catch in the Vikings’ win Sunday night.

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UP NEXT

Gophers at Rutgers, 11 a.m., Saturday, Piscataway, N.J. There are a lot of close ties between the two programs. The most intriguing storyline, of course, will be the Gophers facing their former quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, who left the program after last season. Neither side will have to look hard for extra motivation.

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A FAM FINAL WORD

A month ago, the Gophers were 2-3 after back-to-back losses to Iowa and Michigan. Their season looked in danger of free-falling. An upset of USC changed the mood and the direction of the season. A four-game winning streak has moved the Gophers into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings and in position to improve their bowl game destination.

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Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. I’ll publish this column on Tuesday mornings. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. Thanks again — Chip (@chipscoggins on X; email me at anthony.scoggins@startribune.com)

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