When John Harbaugh makes that walk down the steps from McDaniel College's field house to the practice field, he'll be under the microscope for the rest of the year, and the tone for the 2008 season will be set during the next 25 days of training camp.
The eyes of an entire city will be on Harbaugh, the Ravens' first-year head coach, but he'll be scrutinized more by his players, who are trying to develop a feel for the new boss.
Harbaugh has had at least six minicamps, and he established a rapid tempo for practices. But those camps were part-time. Training camp is full time, 24 hours a day, nearly four weeks.
The players will be watching to see how Harbaugh runs practices, handles injured players and deals with disciplinary matters. They'll be looking to see how he interacts with players, assistant coaches and the media, and whether he is strict when it comes to bed checks.
The key for Harbaugh is to be consistent and not back down from confrontation. Because if he does, he will lose respect quickly.
That's an unlikely scenario. Harbaugh is too smart. He knows the MO of this team and is aware there are still some surly veterans on the roster who could make his life difficult.
Harbaugh also had to look at film from a year ago and notice the illegal procedure and unsportsmanlike conduct calls against the Ravens, most of them the result of a lack of discipline.
He wants to change that this year, and it all starts this morning when the rookies take the field for the first time. Many coaches, especially those from the old school, believe teams are built during training camp.
Harbaugh is old school as far as discipline, but modern when it comes to common sense.
"Training camp is tough," said Harbaugh, 45, in his first season as a head coach. "Training camp is hard. It's different than the old days. I've heard the term 'old-school training camp.' I don't know if that's real accurate, because back in the old days, you had 120 players in training camp and you ran those 3 1/2 -hour practices. That's not what we're talking about here.
"We're going to run an intelligent camp. I think guys are going to work hard. They're going to get tired. Their legs are going to get weary, because that's how you get good. The goal is not to be a fresh football team coming out of training camp, because that's impossible. The goal is to be a strong football team coming out of training camp, and that's what we're going to try to build."
