Lincoln football head coach Steven Smith is a man of high expectations.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise when he said Wednesday's first day of spring practice "wasn't good enough."
"We've got a long way to go," Smith said after his first official practice as Lincoln's head coach. "But there were some good things and some bad things. I think guys are still getting acclimated to what we're doing and how we're doing it."
More than 50 players were dressed for the Blue Tigers' opening afternoon practice, which includes 14 transfer players that enrolled at Lincoln prior to the spring semester.
"Most of them were prep school transfers, most of them were still in that first year, so it was kind of easy," Smith said of their transition into the program. "It's harder when you have guys coming from junior college who have been in a program for two years and have been doing things a certain way, so you have to allocate for that. We only had one or two of those guys."
Smith has also been getting to know Lincoln's returning players, but not all players will be back from the 2016 roster.
"We have some who are still here and some that are gone," Smith said. "They understood what we are looking for and they understood the discipline aspect of what we've trying to get done.
"Now that we're coming together here, we just have to make sure we all put it together as one."
Since Smith was hired in December, his interaction with his team has been primarily through team meetings, becoming acquainted with the players one-on-one or during strength and conditioning time.
For three months, his job was a lot of administrative details. Smith considered Wednesday a nice change of pace.
"It feels good to just take two hours out of our time and focus directly on football," he said.
Now he'll get to see the players on the field four times a week for the next three-plus weeks, implementing his offense and defense schemes in addition to more conditioning work.
"The biggest thing right now is to make sure stuff like turnovers - we can't have turnovers - and focusing on making sure our technique is tight," Smith said. "Everybody wants to be pretty and all that other stuff. I don't care about the pretty stuff. I just care about the technique."
The Blue Tigers will add 33 more players on the practice field this fall. Smith and his coaching staff signed 32 players on national signing day last month, and have added one more signee - kicker/punter Wolky Belancourt from ASA College Miami - since then.
Lincoln still has 13 more practices until the spring game, which is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Saturday, April 15.
"I want it to be important for them to not want to make mistakes," Smith said. "It's important to me, but when it becomes important to them, that's when you know you're in a good position.
"On April 15, you'll be a lot more cleaner, you'll be a lot more disciplined, you'll be a lot more focused on what you're trying to get done."
The spring game will take place at Lincoln's practice field due to the upcoming construction work on the playing surface at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.