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.
But a recurring concern from 2021 cropped up within minutes of stepping onto the turf: Sluggish starts.
"We have to learn how to start practice a little bit faster," Jones said. "We didn't value the football today. We had too many dropped passes, too many exchanges out of the [shot]gun. ... Everything in our program is about winning the ball."
As much as there's a clean slate for this ASU team, the Red Wolves are well aware they can't afford to commit the same errors lest they suffer a similar fate to a year ago when they went 2-10.
During a string of nine defeats, ASU dug itself into double-digit first-quarter deficits on five occasions.
"Sometimes, we'd go out there, and ... weren't mentally prepared," linebacker Kivon Bennett said during last week's Sun Belt Conference Media Days. "It's not that we couldn't play with people, it's just that we weren't ready to play with people. So we'll start off and they'll start beating us 7-0, 14-0, 21-0, and then the switch flipped in our heads that it's time to play football."
Jones said he plans to change practice structures on a daily basis rather than always beginning with individual drills before going into full-team activity.
The Red Wolves could jump right into a team period. They might also start with a two-point conversion best-of-seven contest or special teams.
It's a matter of having the necessary focus from the get-go.
"It starts in practice," quarterback James Blackman said. "You see me barking a little bit, trying to get guys amped up and create some more intensity. We've got to create that environment here and make it translate on Saturdays."
With practices on three of the first four days of camp -- ASU returns to the field today and Saturday, sandwiching a Friday off-day -- there isn't an expectation of immediate perfection.
Veterans like Blackman, Bennett and safety Eddie Smith are locked-in as starters and will be regular presences with their respective first-team units throughout the next three weeks.
But there will be plenty of rotation elsewhere, particularly on both the offensive and defensive lines. Jones indicated that the Red Wolves will try a handful of guys at outside receiver -- to supplement Te'Vailance Hunt and Jeff Foreman -- and as many as three of four defensive back spots could be up for grabs.
"Everything is a competition," Smith said. "[I tell the young guys], 'Shoot, we brought you in for a reason. We want you to play.'
"You come in every day and work, you've got a chance to play like everybody else, no matter if you got here today, January or last year."