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One of the more notable specitators at Tuesday's practice was former SMU defensive tackle Brandon Bonds, who along with fellow defensive tackle Adrian Haywood and defensive ends Justin Rogers and Cory Muse formed arguably the best SMU defensive line in two decades. As Bonds watched the Ponies go through drills Tuesday, he shared his thoughts on a number of topics as the 2008 season approaches:

• On converted defensive tackle Patrick Handy, who is listed at 255 pounds. He's probably heavier than that, but he still is lighter than most players who take on the rigors of playing on the interior of the defensive line.
BONDS: "When you play a team with a really big line, like Texas Tech, he can't rely on his strength. He's strong — real strong — but when you get a team like that, where everyone on the line is 6'6" and over 300 (pounds), it doesn't work. He'll just tire himself out. Against a team with a line like that, a guy like Patrick has to rely on his strength, technique and quickness, and he has all three. He's strong, but really he's very quick and has great technique. He'll do a great job this year."

• On the difference between the new SMU defense and the scheme in which he played.
BONDS: "Our defense was very different, from what I've seen (of the 2008 version). They get upfield a lot — all the time. They'll cross up and cover each other up. When me and (Adrian) Haywood played, we had to know each other's responsibilities, so well we could have played each other's position.

"The biggest difference I see is that this year's defense is going to make offenses adjust to them. When we played, we read what the offense was doing and adjusted to them. In this system, the offense has to adjust to what we're doing."

• On who will surprise this year:
BONDS: "Chris Butler — he's a lot like Marion Barber. He's not quite as thick, of course, but he has a lot of the same qualities. He's fast and really strong, and he hits you before you can hit him. He was on the scout team my senior year, and by game day, we felt good, because Butler made our defensive line better every week. On game day, we were ready to go, because we had to go against Butler every day in practice."

Really cool. Always loved watching Bonds play. He was one of those guys who worked his tail off and really proved his skeptics wrong. Good stuff!

severely underrated player for us, really coulda helped us out last year

Agreed. He and his brother were both underrated.
He could help us this year, too.