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U Rule. Azzanni's football equation reads as follows: 6 seconds + 3 great efforts = 1 great play. "It's something I've adopted over the years through the coaches I've been with,'' he said. Six seconds would be the aver- age length of a play by Azzanni's standards. Three great efforts would vary slightly from a run- ning play to a passing play. On a running play, he said, "If you're blocking on the perim- eter, there's your takeoff, your breakdown and there's finishing the block. Those are your three great efforts.'' On a passing play, he said, "It's your route, it's catching the ball and it's finishing.'' In sum, he said, "If you can get 11 guys doing that you're go- ing to be pretty darn good.'' For now, Azzanni is in the process of taking baby steps with his position group. "I can fix the other things,'' he said. "If we can get the mental- ity of how we play each snap, the technique will come. But if you play three or four seconds — on and off — it will take longer.'' During winter conditioning, UW strength coach Ben Her- bert challenged the receivers as a group after he didn't get the desired tempo and intensity level during an early morning 10 » VARSITY APRIL 12, 2012 Azzanni's message received by wideouts LUCAS AT LARGE MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM W wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni has his own version of the 63 workout. The day before, he put them on high alert when he said, "I need tomorrow to be a great day." Instead, he said, "They showed up kind of going through the motions.'' They heard about it, too. "The biggest thing about this group,'' Herbert lectured, "is that I think the ability is there but your de- sire to be consistent and really apply that ability is what I'm not sure about right now. "From a desire and pure competitive nature standpoint, I want to see where you are.'' Herbert set up folding chairs, side by side, on the sideline in the McClain Facility. There was one chair for each wide receiver present, and they had the option of sitting down when exhausted. Herbert told the group that he would not dismiss anyone unless every chair was filled. Herbert then conducted a Prowler sled workout consist- ing of 10-yard bursts behind the sled. "It's an intensive deal,'' he said with a devilish grin. At about the 15th rep, Herbert noted, "I know there were some guys thinking about sitting down but they looked around and nobody else was ready to sit, so they kept plugging and plugging. "Normally when we do a Prowler workout, we'll get 10 to 15 or, at the most, 20 reps.'' Herbert called up the group after the 30th rep; a number they had not reached before. "I'm 100 percent confident right now you'd go until you had class — another 45 minutes to an hour,'' he said. "You'd do 100 or 150 reps, whatever it was. But you weren't going to sit down. "Your desire and competitive nature are where they need to be, but your consistency is off. "When Coach B (Bret Bielema) or Coach Az (Azzanni) tell you, 'We need a great day tomorrow' then you need to have a great day. You can't come out and have an average day. Every day matters — only 12 count.'' That would be the 12 regular season game days. "All that stuff is encouraging,'' Azzanni said. "Now we have to take it to the football field.'' It's one thing to get players stronger and faster. But how do you accelerate their maturity? "You've got to teach them what maturity is and how to be a big-time player,'' Azzanni said. "You have to teach them how to create habits on a daily basis.'' That might entail everything from "how to take notes in a meeting'' to "how to sprint from drill to drill'' to "how to cele- brate when you score in red zone skelly.'' Said Azzanni, "All those things are creating a habit and culture that big-time players do day- in and day-out. That's how you grow and mature.'' That's by rule, 63 or otherwise.