Aug. 10, 2006
With summer school classes completed, the Baylor football team drilled for 150 minutes Thursday evening on the Floyd Casey Stadium grass practice fields. It marked the Bears' third consecutive practice in full pads and their sixth of camp, which ends Aug. 19.
"I thought it went pretty good tonight," said Baylor coach Guy Morriss. "I was unhappy with the first group in the team period and the way we started off. The second bunch drove it and then got stopped on a fourth down play. The ones then came in and did some good things. It has been back and forth, give and take, the last couple of days."
Morriss left the practice field on Wednesday evening disappointed with his team's workout, but film study by the coaching staff revealed that the Bears had turned in a good workout.
"I probably spoke too soon, because we looked at the tape and it wasn't as bad as we thought," Morriss said. "Maybe it will be the same way tonight. It was not nearly as bad as we thought when we left the field."
Nine players missed Thursday's workout due to injuries that have been sustained over the first six practices. Junior running back Brandon Whitaker (sore knee), junior inside receiver Terrance Parks (sore hamstring), sophomore inside receiver Carl Sims (illness), senior defensive end Julian Hill (sore knee), senior nose tackle M.T. Robinson (sore hamstring), senior offensive guard Will Blaylock (muscle strain), senior center Yancy Boatner (concussion), sophomore free safety Dwain Crawford (groin strain) and sophomore offensive guard Dan Gay (sprained ankle) all missed Thursday's workout. In addition, senior preseason All-America punter Daniel Sepulveda continues to be sidelined while recovering from knee surgery back in April.
"We don't have really serious injuries," said Morriss. "It's time in the next day or two to start thinking about peeling some time out of the schedule and start swapping scouts a little bit more.
"When you bang good vs. good as much as we have, you expect a few guys to get nicked," he added. "Right now we don't have anything serious, so if we can make in through Friday and Saturday, we'll probably start yanking some time out of the script.
There was some good news on the injury front, though, as junior cornerback Braelon Davis returned to practice after sustaining a knee contusion during Tuesday's practice.
Baylor returns to practice Friday evening at 6 p.m.
Notes: Morriss felt that at least three true freshmen receivers, David Gettis, Justin Fenty and Ernest Smith, would play for the Bears in 2006 and that redshirt decisions on others in the class would be made in the coming days ... "We have seen some of the freshmen and what they can and can't do," Morriss said. "We have to start putting the reps into the kids who are going to do most of the playing for us." ... Baylor's annual Meet the Bears Day is set for 4 p.m. on Aug. 19 at Floyd Casey Stadium, just ahead of the team's 6 p.m. workout which will be its last prior to school starting on Aug. 21.
