Aug. 9, 2006

WACO, Texas - Baylor football head coach Guy Morriss saw opportunity in the signs of fatigue during Wednesday night's practice session as the Bears concluded their sixth day of preseason drills at the Floyd Casey Stadium practice fields. Wednesday was the final day of exams in Baylor's second summer academic session.

"We had a lot of kids up late (Tuesday) night studying at the library and writing papers, it's hot, and we're starting to get a little tired," Morriss said. "But we pushed through it OK. That's just an opportunity to learn how to push through it when you're tired. There are going to be a lot of fourth-quarter games when we're going to have to suck it up tired and go win the ball game. We need to learn how to handle this heat, and we don't want to let fatigue make cowards of us."

Wednesday was Baylor's second day in full pads. The Bears will continue to work in full pads for the next few days now that summer classes have concluded. Morriss expects focus to increase with the end of the summer academic session.

"With classes, some of them were probably only sleeping four or five hours a night," Morriss said. "You can't come out here in this heat and give us two-and-a-half hours of work on that kind of rest. But we'll get into a normal routine. We'll come over here in the morning, have a meeting, lift, have a walk-through, talk things out; kind of slow some things down a little bit. I think that will take some of the uncertainty out of things."

Senior inside receiver Terrance Parks (hamstring) missed Wednesday's practice.

Baylor returns to the practice field Thursday at 6 p.m. CDT. All practices are open to the public.