Today is the day. The beginning of preseason practice. Not much happened of note today, of course; it was the usual first-day warm-ups and fundamentals drills. Spurrier didn't unveil the new master plan or anything. But it was the first day of practice, and the season now truly feels like it's upon us. Let's hope it's a good one.
The State and other outlets didn't have much to report about the afternoon. One promising tidbit was that Dion LeCorn was up and running during individual drills and appears close to being recovered from his injury in the Garnet and Black Game. However, Akeem Auguste worked out lightly today due to a groin injury. Hopefully he'll be 100% when it's time. Having most guys healthy on opening night and throughout the season is going to be key; Ellis Johnson has said that we can have another great defense this year if we can stay healthy, but we might crash quickly if we have to go too deep on the depth chart.
C. C. Whitlock and Ladi Ajiboye were also there and on the field. We now know that Whitlock will be suspended for a couple of games; I'm guessing cupcakes. Ladi Ajiboye may be suspended the first three games. I'm frankly a little worried about Ajiboye missing the N. C. State and UGA games; he would have been especially helpful against UGA's ground attack. We'll have to do without him, though, and hope that he's ready to play when his suspension is over.
Last but not least, if you haven't done so yet, check out Leftover Hot Dog's thoughts on practice.
A few other tidbits:
USC hoops will open against LaSalle in the Charleston Classic. LaSalle projects to have a good mid-major team this year, so this will be far from a cake walk. That's good, though; a win will do nice things for our RPI. Davidson (albeit Stephen Curry-less) looms as another possible quality opponent if we beat LaSalle.
Is Lou Holtz running for Congress? I like Lou and think he's a great football coach, but forgive me if I think that someone with such a cavalier attitude towards NCAA regulations might not be, you know, the best politician in a world that could probably use a little more answerability.
Kwame Geathers (brother of Clifton) is having trouble qualifying at UGA.