I played through my sophomore year in college and I can honestly say my high school practices were tougher than those in college. Part of that was for college ball, we were expected to arrive in camp in shape and the first two days of camp were dedicated to testing: bench press, squat, dead lift, vertical jump, shuttle run, 40-yard dash and most brutal was a 12-minute 2 mile run. There were points assigned on a sliding scale for each movement, but you had to pass the test to be allowed to practice. Linemen would rack up extra points lifting, because they'd suffer running. And you couldn't slide a Sunday paper under their feet when they did the vertical jump. College practices were more focused on execution of the playbook, proper form, etc. rather than conditioning and hitting for the sake of hitting. And you had to check into the weight room and lift in college, even during the season. In HS, I think they assumed most of the kids weren't in great shape so there was a lot of running and conditioning.
In addition to the drills the NFL just banned, we had other contact drills and punishment drills. I can remember a game where our OL played terribly and our QB got pounded. At Tuesday's full-pad practice, the coaches had an o-lineman "play" QB, but with no o-line. He stood there with the ball, pretending to take the snap, then fading back to pass. The defensive line and linebackers sprinted off the line and just took turns hammering him. And they'd have him try to step up into the pocket. Each o-lineman took turns as the "QB". Some of the younger kids looked like they were on the brink of tears. There was a drill where one guy would be the center of the circle of say, 6 other guys and the 6 guys would take turns running at and hitting the guy in the middle. The idea was for the middle guy to turn quickly, get his feet and hips set and meet the attacker and deliver a shot back. But sometimes the attackers would come fast, you'd get knocked down and they'd keep coming. And piling on. And the friggin fumble drills were insane. It is a wonder no one was killed. But that craziness aside, I do think there was a lot of benefit to the drills the NFL just banned. Toughness, proper form, toughness, digging deep, toughness. And you can't hide during an Oklahoma drill or 3-on-3s...
Further walking down memory lane: Our coach had what he called "natural stickum". We threw the ball a lot, so there was a lot of passing in practice. If a receiver dropped a catchable pass, the coach would shriek your name, you'd sprint over to him, hold your hands out and he'd empty his lungs and nasal passages all over your hands, grab your wrists and rub your hands together and he'd better not catch you wiping it off. This was the early-mid '80s - gloves were still very rare. I played TE and had the "natural stickum" applied just once. It smelled surprisingly awful.
Water was for pussies. The concepts we have today for proper hydration were not practiced back then and you had to earn water or the lime-aid we'd occasionally get. They were more generous with water in college, but I can recall not wanting to go to the coolers too often because I didn't want to be perceived as a puss.
And one more example of how times have changed. I went to a Catholic HS and one of our big rivals was Sacred Heart. So there was all kinds of motivational stuff for "Break the Heart" week. One was this: the coaches would mount a red painted plywood heart on the end of a post at the top of a hill. We'd all get rocks and take turns throwing rocks at the heart. In a line next to us were the cheerleaders. If you hit the heart, you could pick whichever girl you want and in front of everyone, kiss her. Now some were pecks on the check, but others were full lip locks and dips. Can you imagine that today?
I remember the culture shock when I got to my first college camp. It was much more business-like and no one got really crazy and cursed like we did in HS.
