FRIDAY PRACTICE notes

[PonyPride]

• Slippery when wet: The early part of practice Friday was sloppy, to say the least, because of some pretty serious rain. Several of the QBs seemed to have some trouble throwing the wet ball, with passes being skipped in when underthrown or sailing over receivers on overthrows.

• Waterlogged? Head coach June Jones has had a few questions asked about his insistence upon wearing dark blue sweats, even in the blazing Dallas sun. But when the rain came, the sweats took on the role of a huge towel, soaking up the water. Undaunted, Jones sloshed on through the rest of practice, as would be expected...

• How touch-ing: Justin Willis might not have quite the arm strength of Logan Turner or Bo Levi Mitchell, but part of his game is the touch he puts on the ball. Even in the rain, he was able to float a nice 20-yard pass to Josh Bryant, who was squeezed in between Bryan McCann and Justin Smart. Willis's pass was perfect, just out of the reach of the two defenders.

• Twin tackles? Fifth-year senior Vincent Chase has been a fixture with the first-team offensive line in recent days. But with first-team left tackle Kelvin Beachum, Jr., taking the day off, true freshman Jimmy Chase ran with the first-team offense at left tackle, and seemed to hold his own pretty well in the 11-on-11 drills. The rest of the first-team offensive line remained the same: left guard Sean Lobo, center Mitch Enright, right guard Bryce Tennison and Vincent Chase at right tackle.

• Turner's turn? Jones has said he will announce nothing about the QB pecking order until Monday, and has said nothing should be read into the order in which the QBs take snaps in practice before he makes his announcement. But after Willis took the first snaps with the first team for much of the last week, Turner took the first snaps Friday - and the most snaps.

• New-look defense: Two visible changes on the first-team defensive line. Left DE Anthony Sowe was wearing No. 82 in practice Friday, and Adrian Dizer ran with the first team at right defensive end. (The rest of the first-team defense had Justin Smart, Pete Fleps and Jason Jackson running with the first-team linebackers, and Tyler Jones, Rock Dennis, Bryan McCann and Derrius Bell making up the first-team secondary.)

• Speed is such a rush: Much has been made about the fact that redshirt freshman LB Julian Herron is, if nothing else, extremely fast. Exhibit A: Herron lined up outside the right defensive end and came on a blitz ... and got to Loga Turner before Turner even finished his drop. Moments later, Dizer got such a fast jump at the snap of the ball that he got to QB Braden Smith without being touched once.

• Sight for sore eyes: A shovel pass to Chris Butler bounced off the RB's hands and fell to the ground about halfway through the session. Presumably the ball would have been ruled an incomplete pass, but linebacker Justin Smart - who had missed a little while with a tender ankle - scooped up the ball and took off, outrunning a couple of offensive players to the sideline before turning and heading toward the end zone. The play wouldn't have counted, but it certainly looked like he's not experiencing too much pain.

• Making his point again? A day after nearly swallowing Chris Butler in the backfield Thursday, LB Alex Odiari was at it again Friday. Butler took a handoff and literally did not get to take another step. Granted, Odiari had him in a classic Roy Williams "horse collar" tackle, but the quickness with which he got into the backfield in an 11-on-11 set-up was impressive.

• Keep your head up ... or at least on: Moments after his encounter, Butler took another handoff and found himself staring face-to-face with Serge Elizee, who seemed to tackle Butler by the head. Butler was fine, but it looked like his head might come off with his helmet.

• Got you covered: Special teams coach Frank Gansz did another session of kick coverage drills, bringing two or four guys downfield to tackle a returner. The coverage was visibly improved over how it looked at the start of camp, but one guy split the coverage several times to get upfield: Emmanuel Sanders... It's one thing to beat a guy who's bigger and slower, but one of the nicer returns of the day came when freshman Bryce Lunday started up the middle of the field, reversed field and looped around toward the sideline, beating freshman DB Robert Mojica - who has very good speed - to the sideline.

• Special coverage: The best shutdown of the day came in a drill in which just two players came down in coverage. Terrance Wilkerson started out of the end zone and got all the way to the 3-yard line before Alex Odiari and Julian Herron absolutely devoured him.

• Breaking the boredom? Two of the more interesting sights was when one of the equipment managers got into a return drill as a "blocker" ... and when quarterbacks got into the coverage groups. Winston Gamso got downfield to wrap up Quincey Whittington, and Bo Levi Mitchell got to a returner in the end zone.

• Contain yourself: Maybe the wet footballs had the QBs feeling like they didn't have quite as much velocity on their passes, or maybe it was an indication of improved coverage downfield, but there were a lot of "coverage sacks" Friday, where nobody got open and the QB was forced to take the sack.

[ThadFilms]

Well he said he would have the race narrowed to two by Monday. I think we know which two QBs are in the hunt. I'm not reading into Logan getting more snaps, I think JJ is just doing his due diligence.

I think it's going to be Willis that wins out.

[jimhagle]

Let me add my thanks to the many for your great reports!

[GeorgiaMustang]

Well he said he would have the race narrowed to two by Monday. I think we know which two QBs are in the hunt. I'm not reading into Logan getting more snaps, I think JJ is just doing his due diligence.

I think it's going to be Willis that wins out.

I have to agree with you about Willis. Especially if PonyPride's mention of his touch on the football is any indication to how he is capable pass the football. As JJ said, he likes a guy with a good arm, but ability to get the ball to the receiver with accuracy is the most important thing.

Others have made the point that JJ might be trying to keep JW ego in check. I think this is probably a very valid point. I'm sure JJ heard of/saw some of the on field as well as off field attitude issues, not to mention the problems this spring, and he is making sure that Willis fully earns the job and understands that it will not be just a gift.

Bring on Rice! Geez this waiting is about to kill me!

[indianmustang]

great report
two weeks from today june jones era begins at SMU

[Hoop Fan]

the Rice game is a must win game, and therefore JWillis must start and play well... the threat of competition is good, even if its an idle threat, but starting a freshman and losing to Rice is absolutely no way to start the JJ era.

[jtstang]

I fwill doesn't start there's gonna be a bunch of rewrites on the various and sundry preseason all confernece teams.

[pony warrior]

I don't see anything yet that points to JWill.

[Dooby]

I am actually warming to the idea of Logan Turner as QB. Still more comfortable with Willis, but I am not convinced all is lost with Turner at the helm.

[mrydel]

Pure opinion of mine says the 2 picked on Monday are Logan and Justin. Logan had a full spring and has most experience in the new offense and Justin is the only one with D-1 experience. All of those that favor one of the new kids must not realize the speed difference between HS and college along with the learning of a new offense.

Now, if Jones is willing to write this year off completely and put in a new kid that he thinks will progress to the best after this year of on the job training, then all bets are off and it could be anybody. And he may just do that.

[Mustangsabu]

Pure opinion of mine says the 2 picked on Monday are Logan and Justin. Logan had a full spring and has most experience in the new offense and Justin is the only one with D-1 experience. All of those that favor one of the new kids must not realize the speed difference between HS and college along with the learning of a new offense.

Now, if Jones is willing to write this year off completely and put in a new kid that he thinks will progress to the best after this year of on the job training, then all bets are off and it could be anybody. And he may just do that.

I agree that this would be a rationale for playing a new kid. And it might happen. I still feel it more likely that JJ wants to make some sort of mark this year. With all the money involved, it might be too risky to play a freshman, with an all conference pick on the sidelines, and perhaps only win 1 or 2 games, maybe not even that.

[jtstang]

Remember the backlash two years ago when Willis got suspended for one game for bashing a homsexual? If he's benched, expect that times 100.

[PerunaPunch]

I seriously doubt that. While there would be some alarmists, at this point I think most would give JJ the benefit of the doubt for knowing what he's doing.

[OC Mustang]

Remember the backlash two years ago when Willis got suspended for one game for bashing a homsexual? If he's benched, expect that times 100.

Hey JT...you on the sauce? That's two or three posts with you misspelling stuff. Not that it's that big a deal, but you generally have the typing thing down cold. Just wondering....

[neal peart]

Alex; who do you think its going to be?