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IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 33 f So it's not surprising, then, that those two areas — film study and conditioning/weight training — are what mostly occupy players' own time. Valuable, precious time considering all of what's re- quired. During the season and spring ball, coaches can man- date up to 20 hours per week for football-related activities, a max of four hours per day. Game days count for three hours, regardless of how long the game actually goes, and meetings, practice and some position-group film take up the rest of that. There are tons of other required things — training ta- bles, study tables, compliance meetings, visits with train- ers to get treatment, community service work — that are "non-countable athletically related activities" that don't go toward those 20 hours. And there are considerable academic commitments as well, though actual classes usually are in blocks earlier in the day to allow for meetings and practice in the after- noons. The later hours are most often used for studying, including those "non-countable" study tables. When players describe their schedules — whether during the season or spring ball when they're busiest — several joke there is no "free time." "My free time would be walking, transition times," said junior cornerback Frankie Williams, who writes out his schedule the night before for the next day, making sure to maximize it to the minute. Sophomore quarterback Danny Etling makes sure to start his day by hitting Mollenkopf in the morning — say- ing if he can steal time before classes to watch film it gets his "mind going for the day." "I definitely don't have a whole lot of free time. I have a lot of my day chalked up to academics or athletics. It's what you signed up for, and I definitely like it," Etling said. "But you don't have time to go out and party or do whatever kids do. You don't have time for that. If you want to have good grades and keep getting to your dreams of playing professionally, you just want to keep working." Austin Appleby employs largely the opposite schedule of Etling, the player with whom he's battling for the start- ing job. Appleby is one of the players Shoop sees on his way out of the office, the young quarterback opting to watch film when few else are around to watch him. It's not uncom- mon for him to be in the building until midnight — he's gotten to know the janitors and has the lights turned off on him frequently. Technically during the academic year, coaches have to give one day off a week during the season and two outside the season. But it's rare for a player not to still do something related to football on those off days. The reason? "If you want to be great, you need to put in more than the 20 hours they're giving you," Etling said. Etling could hardly remember the last day he had with- out any football, whether it was working out, throwing the ball around or studying film. He guesses it may have been his junior year in high school when his family went on vacation and spent most of the day in the car. That was years ago. "It's just not what you want to do," Etling says of taking a break. "You've got a lot of people relying on you now, espe- cially in college football. In high school, obviously, you lose some games … but now, everybody's job's at stake. You talk to coaches' families and you meet their families, you don't want them to move. You don't want them to lose their job. You wake up in the morning and that's kind of what motivates you is I just met his son, he's going through school, he's got all these friends. If he loses his job, it's not going to be because of me. We're going to do all we can to keep getting better. You just have to keep getting motivated. I want to go to the NFL and hopefully working hard will get me there. There's a lot of things that motivate you. That's what goes through my mind." But it's not only looking inside Purdue's own program to 1241 Cumberland Ave, Suite B West Lafayette, IN 47906 Phone: 765-497-0197 www.bankerinvestmentgroup.com Bill Banker, President Purdue University Alumni 85' Purdue Baseball Alumni 81'-85' A Fee-Based Investment Advisor located in the Purdue Research Park 25+ Years of Investment Management Experience