A wishbone, to be more specific. As I was spending some time on the sideline during stretches today, David Lee was chatting with a fan on the (tossing a football and joking around) when the fan made a quip about coming onto the field during goal-line activities today. Lee quickly remarked, 'hey! watch our goal line today....wishbone!", and then trotted back to practice.  Later in the practice I found out that was no joke. It was a fun look at another way to get multiple backs on the field at once and potentially create a mismatch for our offense. I'm sure we could change out the backs but today we utilized H.R. Greer (who was back from injury) behind the quarterback and Bolden and Devin Thomas in the points of the "Y" (real technical terminology, huh?). While the use of this formation was the most notable, it was far from the only interesting development in today's practice.

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After a particularly frustrating first practice in full pads for the offense, the team returned today for a chance to give the crowd a little bit of optimism and I'm happy to report today that they did so in resounding fasion. If yesterday I was overly pessimistic about our potential for quality quarterback play, today was  a solid reminder that these players can show significant improvement, even in the short time of only a one day. But first, let's get to some surprising depth chart changes after the jump.

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Today was the first day in full pads for the team, which in itself led to a bit more enthusiasm amongst the players. There was a competitive spirit in the air. This could be observed throughout practice as a number of cheers from both the offense and defense (obviously the instigators) was at a premium compared to the other practices.  Besides the obvious characters (Kentrell Lockett and DT Shackleford), the other vocal leaders of the defense appear to be Wayne Dorsey, Damien Jackson, and an occasional outburst from Wesley Pendleton.

On the offensive side, Terrell Grant is by far the loudest cheerleader, but he has been recently overtaken by currently injured E.J. Epperson amongst others.  Along with E.J., H.R. was out again today, with his foot still in a walking boot.  As for a good bit of injury news, Kentrell Lockett was back on the field and appeared to be participating fully in all drills.

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I'll go ahead and apologize at the start for a short report today. I only stayed at practice for a brief period of time before heading over to the South End Zone Club for tonight's revolutionary capital campaign announcement. If you haven't heard about this, make sure to visit the above link and see how awesome our future athletics facilities can be. I will say this, I loved the presentation (thank you Micah Ginn, Michael Thompson, Danny White, and yes, even Pete Boone), but what stood out above it all was the short speech that our Chancellor Dan Jones delivered. I had the privilege of sitting in the 2nd row for tonight's presentation, but looking in his eyes and hearing his voice, I felt a great deal leadership coming from him tonight. He stood up for the Ole Miss that we all love and laid it on the line. He knows that we need to get better, we need to aim to be the best, and we need to do it together. He definitely knows that this type of future is possible at Ole MIss. He basically said get on board or get out of the way. It was great. Now on to some football notes...

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We all know it's been extremely hot recently, but today's practice was where the heat won the battle. Granted, it was the first time the players were in shells and today's practice was noticeably longer than yesterday's first foray onto the outdoor practice fields. Today, the players were constantly bent over, visibly huffing and slowing down, and making trips to drink fluids. The biggest casualty was freshman sensation, Nicholas Brassell, who went down during drills, sometime around 5:15 or 5:30. He first just rehydrated with some water and gatorade and then rejoined the receiving drills. Just two plays into the drills, though, he was quickly ushered over to the ice baths where he stayed for a good thirty minutes. I thought for sure he was done, but like a champ, he was back out on the field for the scrimmaging that finished the practice. It looked like the players fought through the weather well and the training staff was very much on top of things. I know there's been debate as to whether the heat and humidity will be an issue for the Cougars on opening day, but after today, I can't imagine them being able to handle this heat-that is, if this sort of weather is present on September 3rd.  More after the jump..

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[ED: Thanks again EtOHReb, even though your title is goofy.]

As I'm sure you've read elsewhere (unless this is your first practice report, in which case you are to commended and at the same time questioned for your sanity), but the defensive backs came to play today, reeling in numerous interceptions to accompany plenty of other pass deflections.  It was a nice day for the veterans, especially Charles Sawyer and Damien Jackson, but the were not alone. The newcomers are making their fair share of plays and look to be fighting for some serious playing time.

There's no doubt that the athleticism of the safeties and cornerbacks are both miles and miles ahead of last year's unit.  You can call me out on this now, but I have a feeling that Marcus Temple is gonna get left behind this year. I can still see him contributing in a nickel role, but as the newcomers get more experience, he is gonna struggle to hang.  We finally have 3-5 cornerbacks with SEC speed and ability, even though hey lack the experience.  Below the jump, I'll give my view of the candidates...

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[ED: Much obliged to EtOHReb for this. Look for more from him and others over the next couple weeks of practice.]

If the end of practice today was any indication as to the value of Bradley Sowell to the success of this years' Rebel squad, well...let's just all be glad we have Brad.  Running the two minute drill, Randall Mackey was sacked on three consecutive plays by three different linemen - all of which made mincemeat of our backup left tackle, Emmanuel McCray.  Not a good start to McCray's Sophomore campaign.  As for the rest of the squad, there was clearly a lot of excitement in the air over all the new bodies that have joined in the practices.  Here are some of my observations...

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ED: HT goes to EtOHReb for this one. Former Rebel quarterback Romaro Miller wrote this on the Spirit board today and it is something we all should really read and think about. The guy started for our Rebs under center for three seasons so I do and cannot doubt a single drop of the passion and sincerity this post is dripping with. Seriously, just read it.

Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it there for 60 Minutes

Any time you jump out and do what I am about to do, you must weigh your pros and cons.

I have always been a big reader of The Spirit, but as an ex-player I kept my posting at bay. I have talked to countless ex-players and they all support what I am about to write. I feel that I should share some thoughts and concerns with my fellow Reb fans with whom I share my love for Ole Miss and the Ole Miss football team. All of us that have this same passion know that we all bleed red and blue.

As an ex-player there were certain things that got me focused and motivated me to play the game hard for those 60 minutes. David Cutcliffe was the coach at the time. The team would always start pregame chants and we would repeat them before every game as we came out of the tunnel down to the field. My favorite was Carry The Fight To The Opponent And Keep It There For 60 Minutes. Now whether we did that or not I guess is debatable in your eyes perhaps, but that was our goal.

This has been on my mind and in my heart all year. I am seeing something that is very hard for me to take sitting down as a former OM football player. I feel that it is time some things stop right here and some of our fans get called on the carpet.

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Before today's scrimmage there was much of the same stretching and exercises that lasted for a good 45 minutes to an hour.  Here are some things I noticed prior to the main event.

The crowd was phenomenal for a fall practice of any kind.  I've seen spring games with fewer attendees.

Something tells me Tyrone Nix and Houston Nutt had a fight over the pre-scrimmage music mix...at least Houston got to hear one Kenny Chesney song.

I was also not in favor of the swarms of wasps that apparently nested under the particular seat I chose...Thankfully a very nice gentleman pointed this out to me in time for me to move away prior to being stung.  Hopefully others avoided the same treachery.

It's becoming a bit annoying how popular wide-brimmed straw hats have become in Oxford in the past three years.

One of the warmup songs(Hip Hop Genre) has a line in the background, "Big Landsharks".  Anyone know the song?

Granted it was only about 20 people, but there is no doubt in my mind that the people who clap at the end of stretches are the same people who masturbate to the spirit board daily.

Cliff Coleman's still in a boot.

Bigfooot Brown was not on the first team for field goals kicks today.

The Safeties came out today to shut me up-they caught everything thrown at them in drills(Obviously I"m not vain enough to think they did this for me, but it's still nice to see improvement)

The rest after the jump...

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You'll all be happy to know that both Brishen Matthews and Sam Noblin can throw a spiral left handed, though Damien Jackson does not possess this ability.  Luckily for all of us, all three of these players are right handed and, more importantly, not quarterbacks.

Coach Dameron was unhappy with the technique used by the safeties during their tackling drills, so he decided to employ an exercise that I'm sure is used by coaches all across the country.  Still, this drill has to be the best/most comical drill ever created by a football coach.  All the safeties lined up side by side on their hands and knees while Dameron worked his way down the line.  One by one, the safeties "exploded" from their knees into a flying squirrel position in the air before landing abruptly on their belly around 3 yards upfield.  Appropriately, the purpose of said activity:  teaching them to properly "roll their hips".

The rest after the jump:

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ED: EtOHReb, I'm gonna buy you a Chick Fil A sammich the next time I see you. You know the rest of the Cup and I appreciate you help with all of this.

Quote of the day: "Neva! Neva! You won't get it, @*&&%, Neva!"- From the mouth of Rodney Scott after he successfully blocked D.T. Shackleford in 1 on 1 drills.  Immediately following this, Shack got right back in his face and the two slammed helmets before laughing and strutting off in different directions

More after the jump:

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ED: Frontpag'd. More fine work from EtOH Reb.

Starting with the random bit of information for the day, Brishen “Joe Dirt” Matthews apparently decided that his hair was affecting his play so he started out practice with it wrapped up in a red colored cafeteria lady-style bun.

Now, the lengthy, lengthy stuff after the jump.

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ED: We preesh your work, EtOH. Keep these coming and we'll keep frontpagin' them. We'll also put up practice information and tidbits from whoever wants to post them. Just make sure you're either clever or football savvy in your analysis, if not both. We're more likely to promote it if that's the case.

Let's get the most important things over with first.  Jeremiah Masoli was wearing number 8 today at practice and was not sporting an outrageous haircut such Brishen Matthews' nasty trailer trash ponytail.  Suffice it to say that I will from here on out be referring to Brishen as our own little Joe Dirt.  Some quick hits after the jump...

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