Back to blogging after a couple days off. Some observations from today's practice.

- The Griz were rewarded by the coaching staff today. Practice ended 25 minutes earlier than normal. The last hour of practice usually consists of 11 on 11 drills, red zone drills, and the two minute drill. Before running the two minute drill, the entire team runs to the middle of the field with 4 fingers up in the air, a gesture signifying that it's the fourth quarter. When the team met at the middle of the field today before they usually run the 2 minute drill, Head Coach Bobby Hauck informed them practice was over and they hooted and hollered their way on to the team bus instead of back to the sidelines..

- Running back Thomas Brooks-Fletcher was back on the practice field today in full pads. He also practiced yesterday, but was wearing the red "non-contact" jersey. He didn't take part in the 7 on 7 or 11 on 11 drills, but did participate in some of the individual RB drills.

- It's still tough to get a gauge on where the running game is at. We'll have a much better idea of that after Saturday's scrimmage. As I mentioned in a previous entry, the team is practicing in full pads and hitting, but they still do their best not to tackle each other to the ground. This makes it especially tough to figure out if a running back is doing a good job fighting through the contact, or if the defense is just letting up. In general, the defensive line seemed to be getting good penetration in the backfield today and they were consistently getting a hand on the RB's either in the backfield or after a minimal gain.

- According to Coach Hauck, there is still no front-runner for the starting RB spot. He expects lots of different guys to get carries over the course of the year, saying it's tough to expect a college RB's body to hold up for a 12-14 game season (the Griz have played an average of 13 games per season in Hauck's 5 year tenure with the team). He also pointed out the team platooned running backs when they had Justin Greene and Lex Hilliard in the same backfield.

- Punters Ken Wood (a freshman from Spokane, WA) and Brody McKnight (a redshirt freshman transfer from Purdue) executed pretty "coffin corner" punts during special teams drills. Both placed the ball inside the five yard-line. McKnight was more consistent than Wood with his distance today. McKnight and Wood are also battling freshman Russel Schey (Billings West HS) for the starting kicker job.

- Bobby Hauck had this to say about former Griz kicker Dan Carpenter, who is a perfect 6-6 on field goal attempts this preseason with the NFL's Miami Dolphins:

"I left him a message saying keep making them because in that league they can run you out as fast as they bring you in, and he did that the other night...so good for him. All our former guys, we're cheering them on hard and we're hoping they can stick. He didn't get much coaching here. It was, 'Kick it through those things,' and he did that pretty well."

Check back tomorow. We're hoping to have some video of the 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 portion of practice up on the blog

~ Varun
varun@maxmontana.com