KEARNEY, Neb. — The foundation of the Ryan Held era of Nebraska-Kearney football isn’t being built on the turf of Foster Field.

It’s being sculpted on the hard ground of the grass field south of campus.

“We just want to come over here in the grass, the bugs and the mosquitoes and just get over here and just do some county fair stuff, we call it," Held said. "Three-minute stations, move around, just get after it, team-bonding and team building.”

The Lopers are practicing at Cope Stadium in the mornings during preseason camp, then they move to the grass for walk-throughs and an eight-station circuit.

“This is called The Standard for us. What is our standard? Are we going to hold each other accountable? So we’re going to call this the standard," Held said. "And if we don’t uphold the standard on the turf field, then we’ll come over here and we’ll make sure that we uphold the standard over on the old grass field here.”

The demanding workout has early buy-in from the players, including all-American quarterback T.J. Davis.

“This is one of those things that you don’t see, but it definitely gets us better and allows us to communicate and work effectively together, so I think it’s good for the program,” Davis said.

Monday marked the first day of fall camp. It’s another step in the culture-building process for UNK’s first-year head coach.

“Now we just get to coach football for two or three weeks and not have to worry about anything else but that," Held said. "Coming together, how tough are we, how disciplined are we? We’ll see over the next two or three weeks.”

The Lopers return 10 starters but add 28 transfers and 37 true freshmen. The afternoon sessions are a chance for Davis and other team leaders to establish the expectations.

“The standard is the standard. We all know what the standard is, and that’s hold each other accountable, do things the right way and go out and give it your all every day," Held said. "Hopefully that’s enough for us to win.”