JONESBORO -- It was easy to smile Tuesday as the Arkansas State University football team returned to campus on the eve of fall practice.
No one had yet to get a lecture from a coach or spend a minute on the field in the sweltering northeast Arkansas heat.
That changed early Wednesday with the first of the Red Wolves' 14 practices across the next three weeks, a nearly two-hour session on the grass fields just outside Centennial Bank Stadium.
The morning session was an adjustment from last season. Coach Butch Jones explained last week that the idea was to create self-contained days in which players can take a break for treatment and lunch following their on-field work, then watch film of that day's practice in afternoon meetings and carry lessons learned into the next day.