Hoosiers return after 11-day camp

Eleven days away from home is a long time. Practicing football continuously for 11 days in Marshall, Ind., 90 minutes west of Indianapolis, can make the time seem even longer.\nThis is what the football team did from Aug. 16-26, but the team is back in Bloomington, preparing for its Sept. 9 opening game against North Carolina State. After taking Monday off, the team resumed practice Tuesday.\n"I think it was good for us to go to camp and have no distractions and concentrate on football," junior defensive end Kemp Rasmussen said. "But it's good to be back. Eleven days of camp is kind of a grind."\nIt's hard to argue with Rasmussen.\nAlmost two weeks of dealing with the rigors of training camp is a long time for a college football team.\nThe Hoosiers practiced three times per day at the FCA National Headquarters. On some days IU spent 17 hours practicing in muggy conditions with the temperature reaching 90 degrees.\nThere isn't much at the FCA complex. Just four fields and a covered facility for bad weather. There's also a pond for swimming or fishing, along with a cafeteria and a large bunkhouse.\n"I went by the pond, but I didn't fish," junior running back Levron Williams joked.\nIU, along with Illinois, which has camp in Rantoul, Ill., are the two Big Ten squads that didn't hold training camps on-campus.\n"We've got their undivided attention," coach Cam Cameron said last week. "We've got proximity. Everything is close. That helps us give these guys the opportunity to maximize their time. They're not going to and from dorms. It really makes us a lot more efficient."\nDespite the lack of social opportunities in Marshall some of the players returned with positive memories from camp.\n"I wouldn't like to be there any longer, but it was fun," junior quarterback Antwaan Randle El said. "It brought us closer together as a team and helped us understand a lot of things." \nWilliams agreed.\n"We had a lot of fun (in Marshall)," he said. "That was the first time I had as much as I did at camp"