Players enjoying a nice break after a practice that tubs called "very energetic" twitter.com/BlayneBeal/sta…
— Blayne Beal (@BlayneBeal) August 10, 2012
NOTEBOOKS | So apparently practice was better yesterday than the day before. You have notebooks from LAJ's Don Williams, LAJ's Nick Kosmider, RRS.com's Will McKay and RP.com's Joe Yeager. I should also mention that Yeager wrote a practice report from Wednesday's practice that I missed. There's a ton of good stuff in those four articles so drink that milkshake. Here are a couple of quotes from head coach Tommy Tuberville, the first one is on the inside receivers:
"By God, we looked fast out there today. I would hope everyone would see how much quicker we look at that position. We're going to have a lot of options, knock on wood. We'll be able to do a lot of things with the offense, put guys in the backfield, running the wildcat. Our special teams are really going to improve because of the speed we've got at receiver. The last few years we haven't had receivers to put on special teams, but this year we're going to have the ability to do that."
Tuberville also said that he likes the idea of running 7 or 10 trick plays. Then Tuberville commented on the defensive line:
"I don't think there's any doubt. The defensive line won it. They had the offensive line all confused, jumping offsides. It's total concentration. When you lose your composure like the offensive line did, you can take advantage of them, and I think the defensive line showed a little bit more poise. That's what that drill is all about. Poise and technique. You don't want to get away from your technique and start brawling, especially if your an offensive lineman."
Yesterday, we had Cumbie and Thomsen speak after practice and you have my non-transcript.
OL coach Chris Thomsen: Started a little slow early in the week, trying to break in a few new guys, thought they competed today. Really challenged them, leadership stepped up and the younger guys rose up and followed the lead. Problem yesterday was that they were sick, they bounced back today, but they showed a lot of character today. A lot of the young guys, Alfredo Morales, Tony Morales, LaRaven Clark, Beau Carpenter stand out.
IR coach Sonny Cumbie: Exciting time and a great group of guys, guys are very competitive and enjoy being out there. Really fun coaching these guys. Jordan Davis had a great spring, he's bulked up and had a really great year and he's done a good job. He's very competitive and plays really hard. Pretty tight at H and Y and it's a good problem to have. I feel comfortable with the guys there. Will see separating as camp continues. Anytime the smaller guys touch the football is they have talent and we have to put them in the right position.
SCOREBOARD APPROVED | LAJ's Brittany Hoover reports that the Board of Regents is set to vote on whether to approve a $11 million scoreboard and new control room. Construction is not set to start until after this season. There's also information on where the funds will be coming from, which is essentially the general fund and quotes from AD Kirby Hocutt and others.
MARQUEZ FOCUSING | LAJ's Don Williams profiles WR Bradley Marquez who is back at practice after spending the summer with the Mets organization:
"I know the first couple of weeks will be a little hard on me," he said, "but it’s something to fight through to get stronger and get back to where I need to be so I’ll be able to compete when the first game rolls around."
CHECKING IN FROM PRACTICE | S Cody Davis checks in about how practice is going:
They are a litmus test of how much you have improved over the summer and how much you remember from Spring football. Overall the two practices were very good. We were flying around to the ball and had some enthusiasm on the defensive side. Kaufman mentioned that you could see the enthusiasm in our actions instead of our words. There wasn't much yelling and ra ra type stuff, just confident play and encouraging our teammates. Even though we didn't have pads on the first two days were tough.
MEETING THE TWO DEEP | S D.J. Johnson, who is apparently having a great camp, is up:
MISCELLANEOUS | I failed to link to these earlier, but get caught up on your conference previews from SB Nation's Bill Connelly: the TCU Horned Frogs, the West Virginia Mountaineers, and the Texas Longhorns.
All helmet images via The Helmet Project.