• Transfer OT Thomas Ashcraft said after the Mustangs’ first practice Saturday that he has lost a lot of weight — about 30 pounds — and it shows on the field. When he showed up over the offseason and started joining his new teammates in the voluntary offseason conditioning running, he labored a little, but he now looks visibly quicker. In team (11-on-11) drills, there are several times when he has been able to block a defensive lineman and then get downfield to erase a linebacker.

Linebacker Derek Longoria will wear braces on his wrists again in 2013, meaning the experiment to consider him as a punter will not start for another year (photo by PonyFans.com).

• The “No. 56” walk-on competing to deep-snap on punts who was mentioned earlier this week by head coach June Jones is Jordan Topolka, from Jesuit College Prep in Dallas. “He’s consistent, and that’s the name of the game,” P Mike Loftus said. “He’s more consistent than any freshman I have ever seen — by far. His accuracy is almost perfect. His velocity could get a little better, but it will as he gets stronger. The biggest thing is getting the ball back there quickly and accurately, and he does that really well.”

• One of the best catches of the day came in seven-on-seven drills on a pass from QB Neal Burcham to slot WR Deion Sanders … who chased the ball toward the sideline before reaching out and snagging it with one hand.

• When he was recruited, LB Derek Longoria was thought to be a candidate to compete for the punting job. But surgery on both wrists sent him home as a greyshirt, and upon his return, Longoria wore braces on each wrist. He said he will wear the braces again this year, eliminating any chance that he’ll punt.

• DE Beau Barnes, who missed the Ponies’ spring workouts after undergoing surgery in January to repair the labrum in his right shoulder, has taken part in all drills this fall and is competing at left DE with Andy McCleneghen. Barnes said he feels no discomfort in the shoulder, having spent the spring working to regain strength and stability.

Barnes also said the loss of the Mustangs’ 2012 seniors should not be interpreted as a reason for a step back by the SMU defense. “Those guys were great players and they made a lot of plays,” Barnes said, “but we talk about that a lot. We talk about the idea of ‘next Pony up.’ We talk about where we started, and the fact that we want to get better every year, not get stagnant. We learned from some great players, and we got better all along, so now it’s our turn.

“It’s true through the whole defense: Randall Joyner has played a lot, Kevin Pope has played a lot, Kenneth Acker has played since he was a freshman, Stephon Sanders has played since he was a freshman. We have a lot of new starters this year, but we have a lot of guys who have a lot of playing time. Then you add some of the athletes we’re adding … Robert Seals can run with wide receivers, and he’s a linebacker. Lincoln Richard is an incredible athlete. Some of our guys on the line are great athletes.”

Barnes said the Mustangs like the fact that preseason prognosticators have not predicted huge success for the team this year. “We’re in a new conference so some people don’t know much about us,” Barnes said. “We were picked eighth, I think, and that’s fine — we don’t care. We like to be looked down on, because that’s just going to make us play even harder to prove people wrong.”

• One of the more entertaining drills in practice was when the offensive and defensive linemen squared off in one-on-one drills. One defensive lineman would line up against the entire offensive line, so the Mustang blockers had to decide who was responsible for blocking the pass rusher. Among those who stood out:

—> OT Thomas Ashcraft: again, he looks quicker, and his size and strength is undeniable. On one play, DE Zach Wood started outside and spun back to the middle, with a seemingly clear path to the QB … but Ashcraft kept his balance, stayed in front of Wood and drove him across the field and out of the play.

—> DE Zelt Minor was very impressive, not only because of his quick acceleration that allowed him to blow past a couple of would-be blockers, but also because of a power bullrush. At one point, he got up enough speed on a bullrush that it appeared he might throw the blocker into the quarterback.

—> One of the best battles of the day came in a matchup between NT Nick Reed and G Daniel McCarthy. The play ended up as a stalemate, meaning McCarthy could claim the victory, but the two were going after each other as if the outcome of a game depended on that single play.

—> OT Chauncey Briggs has earned praise, and deservedly so, for losing a lot of weight since his arrival on campus last year. Listed on last year’s roster at 345 pounds, Briggs acknowledged that he really was more than 350 … before working all the way down to 295 over the offseason. Now settled at just over 300, Briggs looks almost skinny by comparison, but he shedding all that weight has not meant losing all of his strength. On one play, he locked his hands on freshman NT Spencer Hollie, who is listed at 310 pounds, and flipped him on his back.

—> Briggs also got planted by DE Cameron Smith … and then returned the favor when the two lined up again on the next play.

• Redshirt freshman NT Nick Reed said the back injury that shelved him for the entire 2012 season is a thing of the past. Reed sat out the season with a stress fracture in two vertebrae in his lower back, but said the only lingering discomfort is that which comes with the physical pounding players absorb in practice each day, and is not a residual effect from his previous injury.