SPRINGFIELD — Dave Steckel's first year as head coach went to the dogs, maybe it wasn't that unusual to see one roaming around at the Bears spring practice on a nice March day. It actually belonged to Stec's daughter, and when jokingly asked what role the canine would play on the team?
"I just wanna see if I can get our players to run as fast as a dog can run," Steckel replied.
Team speed is just one of the many things the Bears need to improve on after a 1-10 campaign that included some of the worst offensive and defensive stats in program history. And Stec was blunt when asked what he liked and didn't like in looking back on his first year.
"I didn't see anything I liked," he said. "I didn't think we were tough enough, I don't think we're strong enough, I don't think we're fast enough."
And he also admitted that the two quarterbacks who shared starting duties last year, Brodie Lambert and Breck Ruddick, didn't meet expectations.
"There's a lot of times, and I've said it myself when I was guilty of it laste year, that when you have two quarterbacks playing you probably don't have one," Stec explained. "Everybody's job is up for grabs except mine."
Which begs the question….after virtually every game last year Steckel blamed the team's poor showing on bad coaching. So how should fans view those kinds of remarks?
"Coaches lose football games and players win football games," Stec responds. "If they're not executing what we're telling them to do, that's my fault not theirs."
The buck…stops here.
