HUNTINGTON -- Two-a-days used to be a lot worse for college football players.

Ah, the good old days, some would say.

There were no limits for coaches, who could work with their players as long and as often as they wanted. Practices often were conducted during the hottest times of the day and always featured hard-hitting, bone-jarring contact. Players were given salt tablets rather than water breaks.

The physically exhausting and mentally draining sessions tested the players' willpower and endurance. It is no surprise many of them broke down and gave up, choosing to leave the team and quit the sport.

Legendary coaches like Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant viewed two-a-days as a way to separate the men from the boys, the strong from the weak, the winners from the losers.

Marshall Coach Mark Snyder remembers those days. In fact, he recalls worse ones.

"When I started coaching," Snyder said, "we went three-a-days every day."

That was 1989, when Snyder was a graduate assistant at Central Florida.

But times have changed, Snyder said, because of an increase in injuries -- or deaths, in some cases.

"You're having more and more young people having problems across the country that we didn't used to see," Snyder said.

UCF redshirt freshman wide receiver Ereck Plancher died March 18 during an offseason strength and conditioning session. An autopsy showed no conclusive cause of death.

"I can't hardly ever remember a young man passing away on a football field when I was a kid or a young coach," Snyder said. "Now, it's happening a little more extensively and those are the reasons we have scaled back a little bit."

One week ago today, Marshall began a stretch of 24 practices in 18 days in preparation for its season opener Aug. 30 against Illinois State at Edwards Stadium. That span doesn't compare to the two-a-days the Thundering Herd's predecessors experienced two, three and four decades ago.

For example, five years ago, the NCAA ruled coaches can't have two-a-days on back-to-back days. Also, they have to provide at least three hours between sessions and that time can't be used for meetings.

In addition to the NCAA guidelines, Snyder said coaches also have changed their practice plans because of the number of scholarship players a Division I-A team can have (85, down from 105 since 1978 and 95 since 1992) and the number of games it can play (12, up from 11 since 2006).

"Even some of my peers who back in the day went at it have scaled back a little bit," Snyder said. "It's just the smart thing to do."

Snyder said another reason coaches have had to cut back is the emergence of technological advances such as supplements, which haven't been used long enough to do research that would prove whether they have any negative side effects.

The Thundering Herd practiced twice Monday, conducting its first session in full pads starting that morning in 62-degree weather and its second session in shoulder pads and helmets starting that afternoon in 78-degree weather.

Marshall will practice once today, twice Wednesday, once Thursday and twice Friday followed by a scrimmage Saturday.

Snyder said he will aim for an every-other-practice balance during two-a-days with one session more strenuous than the other.

"I said it from the beginning: We're going to be smart this year about how we practice, but we're still going to get our work done," Snyder said.

Snyder said players don't worry about incidents such as Plancher's death as much as coaches do.

"They're pretty resilient," Snyder said. "I would say it probably wears on them a little bit, (but) probably not as much as it does us adults. Kids at this age think they're invincible."

Contact sportswriter Jacob Messer at jacobmes...@dailymail.com or 348-1712. His blog is at blogs.dailymail.com/marshall.