Saturday afternoons and nights are often set aside for the bright lights of college football, but overlooked is the preparation that goes into those games.For head coach Jay Thomas, his staff and players, Sunday is the beginning of what is to be a long week of practice and workouts.

On Sunday, Thomas and his staff come into Barker Hall and go over the tape of the last game, then watch tapes on the team they are playing that coming week.

“Typically we get out of here at midnight on Sunday nights,” Thomas said.

Players have Sundays off and have to report to the coaches by Sunday night to make sure that all players are accounted for.

Mondays start early for coaches at around 6:30 a.m. with offensive coaches meeting first, then defensive coaches meeting at around 8 a.m. The rest of the day is spent watching different tapes and coming up with game plans.

The players come in that day at around 2 p.m. and their day is filled with weightlifting, conditioning and watching tapes of the previous game and the next week’s opponents.

Tuesday is like Monday, except the players with meal plans have to check in early for breakfast and the coaches have their meetings until practice at 3 p.m.

“Tuesday is usually our heavy day,” Thomas said. “We like to get a good two-hour practice in on those days.”

After practice the players have to report to study hall on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday, another long night for the coaches that involves mapping out more schemes, ends at about 11:30 p.m.

Wednesday and Thursday are typically the same with shorter practices, some individual skill position work and kicking. Then there is a full team period for about an hour when the team works on offensive and defensive schemes and more kicking.

The most relaxed day is Friday, when the team only practices for a half an hour in shorts at the stadium. Later that night they have a team dinner followed by team meetings with curfew at 10:30 p.m.

Saturdays consist of breakfast in the morning, followed by an offensive meeting and team prayer service known as Colonel Church. Hours before the game is to start, the team eats its pre-game meal, and is then led by the band to John L. Guidry Stadium in the Colonel Walk.

“It’s really a neat deal,” Thomas said. “We enjoy being able to see all the people supporting us for the games.”

One tradition that the team has started this year is before its games, home or away, the team takes a cup of Bayou Lafourche water and sprinkles it on the game field and pray as a team over the areas that they sprinkle.

“Well, we started it before the Sam Houston game, and we would go out on the game field and bless the field,” Thomas said. “It’s like no matter where we go, we always have a piece of home with us.