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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell football team hit the field for the first time in 2010 - its first step toward getting better. Consider day one a success under first-year head coach Kent Austin.

"We've got a really good group of guys here," Austin said. "We have a lot of character - but we don't know how to practice yet. We don't know how to maintain a level of excellence in stringing together several plays in a row. We're focused on the process of getting better. When you focus on that, everything else falls into place."



After hitting campus on Monday, 109 players gathered together to start the 2010 season at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday when practice opened. The Big Red went more than three hours with just helmets and culminated the day with position and group meetings.

Earlier in the day, Cornell players went through a vigorous conditioning test under the direction on Tom Howley, Cornell's Assistant Director of Athletics for Athletes Performance. Nearly half the team had already passed the test after staing on campus during the summer to work out as a group.

With classes beginning on Wednesday, August 25, the players will go through one practice a day right up until they hit the books and get into their weekly schedule routine. With another long preseason camp, the Big Red will not have a double session practice before opening the season on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 1:00 p.m. when it visits Wagner.