Academically speaking
Coach Rod said he had about 12 guys out this afternoon because of summer classes. Ten of the 12 were on the defensive side of the ball.

"They had to do the class and get ready for finals tomorrow, so it was not as crisp a practice."

But, it appears the coaches are still on top of things... "We got a little bit ahead, anyway, in the schedule because we did practice on Sunday. So, we're almost like a day ahead."

"Tomorrow we'll have one good line practice, and then Saturday we have another double-day."

Down Pat
Well? How is Patrick? "Good. Did a little bit more. He threw a little bit today, took some reps and individual, but didn't do any of the team work.

"If it keeps lingering on, I'll be concerned. The only positive is it's forcing the young guys to really step it up a little bit, as far as getting thrown in the fire. And that's not a bad thing. I'm thinking in the long run that's going to help us."

General progress
Coach was asked if he's where he hoped to be at this point in camp... "No. I don't know. I think probably if you asked me last year at this time I'd tell you the same thing... and the year before. So... we're definitely not. We're not nearly ready to play a game, or even remotely compete."

"But, I see enough guys making plays that I think we're going to be OK."

"By the end of camp, you've got to have some semblance of execution on all three phases. And right now, it's a different mistake here and there.

We hadn't had too many exchange problems (under center) in four days and today we had three of them." ..."That's why we stayed a little extra... to work that out".

Not a happy camper
Someone asked if Coach Rich was happier with the afternoon session than the morning one... "Not really. I didn't like either one of them."

McAfee injury
" McAfee still looks like a Christmas tree, with his red on and his white hair." The Coach went on to mention Pat McAfee won't do anything for another 4 or 5 days, but special teams were still active.

"We're still working our special teams. David Brewer (freshman punter) is getting a lot of reps."

Travis McClintic has also been active on special teams, as well as taking reps at receiver.

Rookies and first two-a-day...
"J.T Thomas had a couple of nice plays on defense for us at linebacker. Guesly Dervil did some nice things."

According to the coach, no one stood out offensively, but...

"Ed Collington is getting better. We consider him a freshman because he had never practiced before. It looks like he's going to be in the mix, as far as tailbacks go."

Tailbacks
Does the emergence of Ed Collington solve some problems? "Yeah, certainly, if Ed can come on. We need somebody, whether it's him or Best or whatever. We know that Colson is going to be there, and Schmitt and Slaton. But, we need somebody else for sure and Ed has been very encouraging so far."

"What we'd like to be able to do... is to be able to use Jason more in a slot. But we have not done that at all in the camp." Coach Rich said there were two reasons behind this. One, they've been focused on the tailback situation. Two, Jason has been limited physically. "He's got a little bit of a sprained knee or something there... some kind of irritation."

More on Ed
"He's bigger than Steve. He's probably 205, maybe. But, he's a strong kid and he runs hard behind his pads. He's just learning, but I tell you, he's picked it up. For being the first... what have we got... 7 practices, he's done a nice job. And, very conscientious. There's no question, he's going to be figuring in our plans this year."

Someone asked how he compared to past WVU backs. "They're all different. Quincy was different from Slaton who's different from Avon. The neat part is there's different parts of the offense that maybe they excel at. We've been very, very fortunate... we've had some very good backs."

"Obviously, when you run for a lot, it's easier to recruit... we hope anyway."

Punt / kick returns
Punt returns have been worked on a little, and slightly more effort has been devoted to kick returns. Rich mentioned he wasn't too worried about the punt return situation, considering he returns all his punt returners, and WVU led the league last year in this category. "We've been pretty good in punt returns".

"Both Vaughn and Antonio are pretty solid back there. We've got Darius and Jeremy Bruce as well. We've got four guys that we're pretty confident with catching punts".

"There are a couple of new ones in kick returns. Dervil will be a new one, in addition to those four. We could have Slaton back there returning kicks at times. So, we've got a whole pool back there."

(Referring to Steve Slaton as kick returner) "In certain situations... it's kind of like what USC would do with Reggie Bush... maybe in a tight ballgame in the fourth quarter or when we think we need a little jump start, or something like that, sure."

"A kick returner and a punt returner sometimes can be the same guy. But a lot of times it's a different type of guy. As a punt returner, you've got to have a little bit of wiggle. The kick returner is the guy with speed that takes it and hits it."

"One of the best ones we ever had... we had Shawn Terry here. He wasn't a great side to side, make you miss guy. But, boy, once he hit a hole he could go full speed ahead.

Darius
"If Darius can get himself in shape... he's in pretty good shape, but he's not in game shape yet... he's a guy that if he can touch the ball 8 to 12 times a game, he can make something happen. That's his best asset. He's a really, really good player with the ball."

Go Tito
"Of all the redshirt freshmen, the one that's made the biggest improvement probably of any player on our team is Tito Gonzales. No question whatsoever. And, I told the team that, and I told Tito that."

"This time last year, I wasn't thinking he could play here. Now, he's going to be in the rotation. He's just a great worker. He needed to get tougher physically, and he's done that. He needed to improve his technique, and he's done that. Obviously, (he needed to) get better blocking on the perimeter, and I think he's done that."

"We're looking for depth there, and I think he's going to be able to help us. He'll play both X and Z. He knows several positions."

"Darren Brownlee has improved... he was hurt most of last year. And, I think even Ryan Dawson is a better player now too. I think he's improved as well. So, I've got a pretty good class. They have still got a way to go, but Tito has come the farthest."

I love hearing success stories like that. It appears hard work continues to resonate through the program.