Tom puts as much effort, if not more, in his preparation than anybody on this team. I'm not worried about him.

A winning effort begins with preparation.

The effort of the guys has been great. They've been setting goals for our early meets and taking meet preparation seriously and that's great to see. Preparing correctly is important to performing at a high level. I think we're headed in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.

We pride ourselves on being in condition and being very much able to go for 60 minutes and keep wearing on them and wearing on them.

They're not just big, they're talented, too. They've got guys who can create things on their own and move well in space. That creates a whole different challenge for us.

It's a process. We're still coming together as a group and we know that, but if we can just keep going and keep throwing runs at them, hopefully those 2-yard runs will turn into 10-yard runs.