News of the day, 8/4

Hey everyone. Today's practices didn't seem as oppressively hot. The morning practice lasted only 14 periods (90 minutes or so) and skies were overcast for the afternoon shindig.

Here are some things I saw. Keep in mind that I spent most of my practice-watching time with the linemen because it's fun listening to Hugh Nall, Don Dunn and Terry Price.

*Pat Sims was nuts on Saturday night. They were running some middle and inside drills where offensive linemen were supposed to block people. Pity the guys who had Sims. He beat everyone by being faster and more aggressive with his hands. Even offensive line coach Hugh Nall was praising Sims during the drills, which is pretty rare.

*Antwoin Daniels and Andrew McCain, the two current candidates to start at right tackle, didn't fare well in the drills. There's talk that Nall will give redshirt freshman Mike Berry a shot over there. Based on what I saw today, that might be a good idea.

*Brent Slusher ... I feel bad for him. He just moved to DE from tight end and he's lost. Yet he has to run the drills. That's how you learn. One of the drills was particularly hard to watch. That's when King Dunlap and Tommy Trott double-teamed Slusher. The kid ended up on his back about 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. I'll give him credit, though -- Slusher kept trying.

*A.J. Greene, a freshman DE, is way too light to play right now but he's a fighter. He's active with his hands and he seems to have some rushing technique. He could be a good one after a year or two with strength coach Kevin Yoxall.

*I thought Oscar Gonzalez had a good practice at left tackle. That's Dunlap's spot for now, but Gonzalez has made a lot of improvement.

*Tyronne Green looked pretty good at left guard. He's very strong and understands leverage. He drives people pretty well.

*Bart Eddins and Nathan Farrow, two guys trying to catch on at right guard, had a poor practice. Eddins leans too much and either misses the block entirely or gets pushed around. He's only a year into the position switch, though, so he has a lot of time to improve.

*Michael Goggans, another TE-to-DE guy, is getting a lot of coaching. That's a nice way to put it. He's trying to catch on behind Sen'Derrick Marks. It's not going all that well. It seems like Goggans gets sluggish more often than his teammates. Price is paying a lot of attention to Goggans, though, which tells me that Price believes he has a player here.

*Watching Josh Thompson and Berry go at it in the middle is something else. Those are two burly dudes. They try to push each other back with no frills. It's like push-o-war.