By Keith Grabowski
Designing football practices that mirror real game conditions has become the foundation of North Central College’s offensive success. Offensive Coordinator Eric Stuedemann has built one of Division III’s most efficient and explosive attacks by shaping every drill and period around real-game tempo.
“We like to make practice harder than the game,” Stuedemann said. “We plan practice in coordination with four quarters of a game.”
That structure drives everything the Cardinals do from Tuesday to Friday, creating a rhythm for efficiency, competition, and execution under pressure.
A Week Built for Precision
Following Sunday recovery and film and a full day off on Monday, North Central accelerates into Tuesday with full-speed practice, blending this fresh mindset into a sequence of intentional, situational work.
Tuesday’s focus: choice downs—regular down and distance situations—and goal line.
Wednesday: choice downs, third downs, and goal line from the opposite hash. Thursday and Friday: choice downs, third downs, and end-of-game situations.
In Stuedemann’s program, choice downs are practiced every day, while third-down and goal-line plays are practiced at least three times per week. That level of repetition isn’t by accident—it’s what ensures the Cardinals play fast when the game tightens.
This schedule shows how designing football practices around specific situations creates consistency and precision when the team faces the same moments under game pressure.
Practicing at Game Speed
While many programs rely heavily on scout looks, North Central keeps the game’s speed real by going good versus good every day.
“At a minimum, we’ll go 15 minutes good versus good,” Stuedemann explained. “That’s where you get the real speed of the game—something you don’t always see from a work team.”
Those crossover periods are the proving ground where execution meets tempo. First units face each other in red zone, third-down, or short-yardage situations. The emphasis shifts each week depending on which side of the ball needs it most, but the goal never changes: simulate the pressure and rhythm of Saturday.
This philosophy of designing football practices for real-game tempo keeps both sides of the ball sharp and accelerates player development throughout the season.
Four Quarters of Work
Each practice is designed to feel like a game. The staff scripts four phases, each mirroring a quarter. These include situational changes, competition, and sustained focus.
The offense starts fast in the “first quarter,” hitting tempo drills and early install. Mid-practice periods emphasize consistency and adjustment, just as the grind of the middle quarters does. The final stretch of practice always builds toward intensity—a crossover period that tests execution under fatigue and stress.
That design teaches more than plays; it trains response. Players learn to start fast, sustain effort, and finish strong—habits that carry directly into game day.
This structured approach to designing football practices ensures players experience real-game tempo, mental challenges, and pressure every day before they ever step onto the field on Saturday.
The Results Speak for Themselves
The numbers back it up. North Central’s 76–14 win over Augustana shows not just superior talent, but also the discipline to play at full speed from first snap to final whistle.
It’s not flash—it’s structure. Every rep, every period, and every crossover session fits into a plan built on one idea: practice like it’s game day.
“You can see it in our success,” Stuedemann said. “It’s not just the plays—it’s the preparation and the buy-in from everyone involved.”
That buy-in has North Central practicing—and playing—like champions year after year, proving that designing football practices with precision and purpose leads directly to championship performance.
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Related:
2 Minute Clinic: Rob Everett-Read 2 Quarters vs. 2 Removed
Why They Stayed: How Brad Spencer’s Culture Keeps Players — and Standards — for the Long Haul
More on Coach Eric Stuedemann
Podcast transcript
John Snell (00:00)
We start this week on the offensive side of the ball where North Central College once again showed why it’s among the most explosive programs in Division III football. Offensive coordinator Eric Studeman had his offense rolling a 76 to 14 win over Augustana that featured explosive plays, tempo and balance across the board. Eric, congratulations. We appreciate you being on and we certainly want to give you an opportunity to
Eric (00:25)
Thank you.
John Snell (00:28)
to share a little bit about your coaching staff and then we’ll talk about the concept that you’ll share.
Eric (00:33)
Yeah, yeah, it’s really a group effort. And I’d like to give a shout out to ⁓ our coaches and a lot of them ⁓ are alums on staff. And I think that is a key component to our success as well. But our tight end coach, ⁓ who’s also our assistant special teams coordinator and our strength coach, Joe Fairley. So obviously, you know, at this level, guys wear a lot of different hats. He’s an alum in a former All-American offensive lineman. So it’s great to have him on staff. ⁓
Luke Foster who coaches our quarterbacks, was a student assistant at Iowa. But his dad was a former defensive coach for us. He coached Luke Lane when he was the gagliardi trophy winner. he’s been around. ⁓
We have two part-time assistants that are former alums ⁓ that were part of our ⁓ former championships. Tyler Egan from 2019, he helps coach our running backs in a part-time role. Nick Rummel who also has a job outside. His brother’s on, it’s still ⁓ on the roster as a wide receiver, but he’s a multiple national championship winner for us. He…
comes back and donates his time. And then we have two graduate assistants that do all the dirty work with film breakdown and things like that. Jonas Waskowski, who was a student at the University of Minnesota and was involved in the football program, came over here to be a graduate assistant. And then Chris Allen, who
that wide receivers was at Yale ⁓ as a student assistant, able to come over here and get his master’s. know, surrounded by, you know, a lot of people and a lot of guys that are striving, you know, for the players here at North Central College. So just it’s just awesome to be a part of. A lot of guys that not necessarily played with but, you know, share a lot of a of the same stories, you know, about, you know, sitting classrooms here at North Central.
John Snell (02:40)
Well, we know that staff is obviously critical to success and you guys do have a great staff. Brad has done a great job putting a great staff together. As you know, the format of our program, we ask that you share some ideas with our listeners and you had mentioned some practice thoughts and maybe some things that you do on your day off. ⁓ How about you share a little bit of that with our listeners?
Eric (03:09)
Yeah, so what I’ll do is I’ll take you through a rundown of kind of a week ⁓ in our program. ⁓ And we’re an afternoon practice outfit. So we will practice at 3.30 in the afternoon ⁓ after the kids go to class. But what we’ll do is we’ll play Saturday and then Sunday, we will review our film from that game, ⁓ workout, and Monday will be our off day. ⁓ So the coaches will game plan on Sunday and Monday. ⁓
be a chance for our kids to recoup ⁓ and be strictly just students. ⁓ And Tuesday, we’ll get back at it today. And we will install Choice Down ⁓ as well as GoLine on Tuesdays. ⁓ On Wednesdays, we will install Choice Down and Third Down. ⁓
hit goal line from the other hash. So on Wednesdays we’ll hit choice, third down, and goal line. On Thursdays we’ll hit choice down again. We’ll hit third down from the other hash. ⁓ And on Thursday and Friday we will hit end of game situations as well as choice down ⁓ and goal line. So we are hitting third down and goal line ⁓ at a minimum three times per week as well as hitting choice down every day. ⁓
I don’t know if that’s unique to our program, that is the way that ⁓ we’ve done it even since I was a player here. ⁓ And that’s a credit to the culture ⁓ and the buy-in, and not only from the coaches, from the players. And you can see that in the recent success ⁓ that we’ve had. ⁓
You know, and we will also, ⁓ you know, within that, you know, those practices, we will cross over and do good versus good, ones versus ones. ⁓ You know, when we’re doing a lot of those situations that will be, ⁓ you know, against a work team defensive look. ⁓ But on ⁓ those Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday practices, we will do live crossover, good versus good ⁓ to get the speed of the game, you know, something that you may not get, you
type of speed versus the work team. And we’ve had success in those ingredients over the years.
John Snell (05:32)
Eric would, and that was going to be one of my questions. When you are working ⁓ third down in goal line, in your goal line period, will you typically do that good versus good or will you use your?
Eric (05:44)
That still
will do situations good versus good every day. it may be depending on what week we’re in and maybe if it’s early and maybe camp or early in the season, it’ll be just situations that we got to prepare for. As the season goes on, hey, what ⁓ maybe offensively or defensively are we struggling in? And if we’re gonna do a good versus good period, that would be that type of situation. Maybe it’s red zone, maybe it’s third down, whatever situation one side of the may be struggling in.
But when we’re doing just install purposes, ⁓ third down, scalp, those are all V-verse scalp looks. So when we’re going good versus good, that situation will be dependent on what we feel as a staff. ⁓
John Snell (06:29)
Could you say in terms of the time that you spend good versus good, what would you say that the amount of time total in a practice that you’re spending good versus good? Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes? Give us a sense of that.
Eric (06:43)
Yeah, I’d probably say at a
minimum 15 minutes or more.
John Snell (06:46)
⁓ in terms of other situations, is there any other situations that you guys will spend some time on that, you know, maybe out of the ordinary, unique or different than
Eric (06:57)
What
we like to try to do is, you like to try to make practice and simulate it harder than a game. So throughout practice, we’ll try to plan a practice ⁓ in coordination with four quarters of a game. So maybe there’s always gonna be a competition period, crossover period, scouting period in four different phases. We’ll come back and do some indie periods and then go back and do a crossover.
period if that kind of makes sense. To get the mindset not only to start practice fast and efficient, ⁓ you know, but to sustain and then finish practice with some type of, you know, build up to a crossover type thing to finish practice for the fourth quarter.
John Snell (07:44)
Yeah, that’s ⁓ interesting stuff. ⁓ And obviously what you guys are doing, it seems to be working pretty well, Eric, ⁓ to get to the national championship and be the returning national champion. You’re obviously doing something right there.
Eric (08:00)
We
appreciate it, it takes a lot of hard work by all involved. And it’s a joy when people appreciate the hard work and then you see the results.
John Snell (08:14)
Well, we want to congratulate you again and we wish you the best ⁓ for the rest of the way. And it’s always interesting to see, ⁓ you know, the scores around the country and how you guys are continuing your success. And again, we appreciate you being on and as I said, congrats.
Eric (08:36)
Thanks for having me. hope to see you guys soon.