Bruises, strained muscles and tired legs are part of any football season. All teams go through it. For Appalachian State, a two-time national champion making a deep run into the playoffs for the third straight season, winning certainly comes with a wear-and-tear price. "During the season, you never feel 100 percent," said center Scott Suttle, a senior and four-year starter. "And it doesn't get any better the longer it goes. Something always hurts." The Mountaineers have played 42 games in 27 months heading into a game against Eastern Washington on Saturday. It has been an extended endurance test, something the team deals with. "Some players and some teams are able to push that aside and go ahead and play," Coach Jerry Moore said. "Some people and some teams can't. So far we've been pretty resilient." Moore said that his staff tries to cut back on practice between games this time of year, but that there's no easily discerned formula with another big game always lurking. "Our Tuesday and Wednesday practices it's hard to cut back, it really is," Moore said. "We only go full pads on Tuesday. We don't wear pads on Monday and we don't on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday we'll go with shorts and shoulder pads and helmets. That's not much of a break, but it's a little bit of a lift for them. "And we try to do a little bit different things. If it's cold we'll have hot chocolate and hot apple cider in the locker room. It's amazing what will lift your spirits a little bit. And we can practice in that indoor facility now if the weather is bad." As a reward, rounds of conditioning - such as sprints affectionately known as "gassers" - are reduced by one round with each step of playoff success. "Sometimes coaches will come in and say, 'Coach, we need to cut back a little bit today,'" Moore said. "I'm thinking, 'We need to go.' But an hour later I'll probably say, 'You guys are right, we need to cut this thing back and take 20 minutes off it.' There's a feel to it of how to handle it." Jeff Dillman, the Mountaineers' strength-and-conditioning coach, equates the team's three-season stretch - which includes 15 games in 2005, 15 in 2006 and 12 and counting this year - to an NFL schedule. Dillman, who was at LSU before taking the job at Appalachian, said that it's a bit different for playoff teams than bowl-division teams who play the regular season and then have a month or so off before a bowl game. "Luck has to be on your side when it comes to injuries," Dillman said. "There's no recovery time when the playoffs start. The past two years we've had very minor injuries through the entire season. This year we've had more. That's something you just can't control." Bobby Bozzo, a freshman defensive tackle, said that it's a challenge to adjust to a potential 15-game schedule. He said that college football is more demanding and the season a lot longer than in high school. "One of the first things I heard was, 'Trust me, the injuries that you have now aren't going to heal,'" Bozzo said. "But it's not like huge injuries. It's like week by week different little things that are nagging. "It's hard to believe some of these guys have been through so many games in a relatively short period. You see someone like Gary Tharrington and John Holt who have been playing through injuries all year. They just add up from the years before." Senior cornerback Justin Woazeah said: "I felt it the second year. But it's incredible what you can do if you just push yourself. You learn that the extra fight and that extra want-to makes the difference. That's something that will carry with us through all our life. "It's awesome really. It's been an experience I'll never forget." Kevin Richardson, a senior running back who is nursing an ankle sprain and hopes to be ready by Saturday, said: "You definitely feel the bruises from all those games in a short period of time. A lot of our guys are dinged up and beat up, but you just try to take it one day at a time and do the right things." Dillman said the yearly cycle offers few breaks. A short respite will come after the season and before spring practice begins. Then comes another break before optional summer workouts. Then preseason camp. "We try to get them as strong as possible, but we don't do a lot of running in the spring," Dillman said. "We do three total body days of lifting in the spring all the way up until spring ball. Instead of four days in the weight room, we only keep them in the weight room three days. They get Tuesday and Thursdays off, and we try to get them out of here early on Friday so they can get home and spend time with their families. "I'm a firm believer in consistently training during the season as long as you don't do too much. More is not always better. The coaches do a real good job of cutting back practices toward the end of the year. We don't do as much contact work in practice near the end of the season that you do early on." Winning helps the players endure bumps, bruises and the grind of long seasons. "The thing that is always good is that kids love to win," Dillman said. "If you're winning ballgames, you're always going to be motivated." Moore, who routinely arrives at his office around 5 a.m., said: "We work hard. It's tough to do that, to play 42 games in 27 months. There's a point where you've got to want to go play those games. I'll start right with me; it's easy to get tired. And you've got a built-in excuse. We've played a lot of football games in 27 months. But you've got to want it. "There's a resiliency. There's something that drives athletes and coaches to push all that tiredness aside." ?€˘ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.