VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State football team took advantage of cooler temperatures and heavy cloud cover to hold its first football practices of the fall on Monday morning.

Over 100 Blazer players were split into two practice sessions. Both groups worked on the field for two hours in helmets and shorts.

“The first day of practice is kind of like your birthday or Christmas when you were young,” Valdosta State head coach David Dean said. “It is exciting to get the kids out here. It is exciting to see the new kids get out here and see how you did in recruiting...To get everyone together is a lot of fun.”

Dean said the split squad practices for the first four days aren’t a likely benefit for the players, but rather a better way for coaches to evaluate players. The team’s first full-squad practice is Friday, the same day the Blazers are eligible for full-contact.

“It really gases these guys,” said Dean of the split squad practices, “because they are taking more reps in a smaller amount of time. But for us, it gives us a quicker evaluation. We can find out right now if a guy, mentally, can pick things up faster, where if he sits around with four or five people on the depth chart in front of him he doesn’t get as many reps.”

The Blazers enter camp as the front runners to win the Gulf South Conference. They were picked to win the GSC last week. Regardless, quarterback Cayden Cochran said the team isn’t looking far ahead and is focusing on improving throughout camp.

“They are not handing out GSC trophies now,” Cochran said, “and we understand that. The 10 teams on our schedule are very good and we have to come out here and we have to perform well.”

The start of fall camp capped off a productive summer for the Blazers. Although the players were not able to meet with the coaching staff, they were allowed to workout with strength coach Michael Doscher at the team’s facility. This summer was one of the highest turnouts since the Blazers’ national championship season in 2007.

“When you talk to the guys you can tell they are ready to get things going,” Dean said. “They made a commitment this summer to get themselves better and I think they did. They came back in great shape. We put a lot of pressure on them to play fast today and they did that. It was a high-intensity first practice.”

“It was good, I felt refreshed,” said linebacker Chris Pope, who missed spring practice due to knee surgery. “We were here working hard all summer. We are just getting the mental reps down right now and we feel if we can get the mental reps down then it will take care of itself. It was a good Day 1; one of the best Day 1’s I’ve had since I’ve been here. It feels good to be out here.”

Pope said his knee feels good and he is cleared for all football activities without a brace to support the knee.

Cochran enters this season as the known starting quarterback for the Blazers. Just moments before stepping onto the field for his practice Monday morning, Cochran said the summer workouts were especially good for him, considering last year he arrived in Valdosta just one week before camp began.

“It was my first summer being here,” Cochran said. “I think we had an average of 60-something players showing up each day. It was cool. I think it was a big experience for us this summer and with me being new it helped out a lot.”

“This time last year he had only been here for a week,” Dean added. “He was having to learn everything from teammates. He is way ahead of Cochran. He had a great spring practice, he was here over the summer throwing and I think he, more than anybody, is excited to get out here and get going.”

One driving force for the Blazers throughout the summer and entering camp were the three straight final minute losses to end the 2011 season.

“The bad taste is in our mouths,” Dean said. “The way we ended and we hopefully want to go out there and prove that we are a better football team than we showed.”

“We want to focus on finishing,” said cornerback Matt Pierce, who was named a preseason All-American. “That is one thing we are pushing this year.”

For more on Valdosta State, visit www.blazersportsbeat.blogspot.com and follow @Ed_Hooper on Twitter.