By Mark Kaboly
When Chris Boswell made a 51-yard field goal midway through the third and final minicamp practice Thursday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, coach Mike Tomlin blew his whistle and spring practices officially were over.
Next stop: St. Vincent College in Latrobe in six weeks for the start of training camp.
Until then, it's vacation.
“Yeah, right,” guard David DeCastro said with a smirk.
Over the next month is when the real work begins for the Steelers, and Tomlin made sure his team knew that before players went their separate ways with a not-so-subtle reminder.
“The next (six) weeks leading up to Latrobe is going to be big, and that is one of the things that we stressed in terms of leaving them with,” Tomlin said. “What they do from here on will probably define them from a conditioning standpoint. That is one thing that they can control. They have no control over what we ask them to do. They do have great control over their overall readiness.”
Tomlin has preached conditioning to the team for years. None more so than last year, even though the team endured a rash of injuries.
Tomlin said he expects players to be in game shape when they arrive at training camp rather than get into shape during preseason.
Read More: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/10608298-74/shape-tomlin-weeks
