With just two weeks until real, live college football kicks off, most training camps are at (or a bit past) the halfway point.
Typically, players and coaches get a little tired of the day-in, day-out grind and staffs around the country usually do something this week to try to break up the monotony. Oregon State's Mike Riley has had a team-wide water balloon fight after a practice in past years and Georgia's Mark Richt took his Bulldogs players to the pool instead of hitting the field on Tuesday.
BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall went in a different direction during the Cougars' first week of fall camp and decided to make the coaches the focal point of things. There's some interesting footage of the coaches attempting to catch footballs launched in the air by a JUGS machine in a recap video from the school. It doesn't appear that the coaches had a lot of success ... or any success at all, really.
It was bad.
Either way, the fun starts at the 1:35 mark:
Here are nine other things you need to know from Wednesday's training camps:
- Florida State starting cornerbacks Ronald Darby and P.J. Williams are battling hamstring issues and likely will miss practice at least through the weekend. Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher mentioned that while Williams could return in three or four days, he might hold him out for up to a week. Smart move by Fisher: Darby and Williams form one of the best corner duos in the nation, and there's no reason to take a risk right now. Plus, getting backup cornerbacks some extra reps never hurts.
- San Jose State linebacker Moses Saucedo, a sophomore who was expected to start in the middle for the Spartans, has a torn ACL and will miss the season. While SJSU looks fine at outside linebacker -- senior Vince Buhagiar is an All-Mountain West candidate -- the Spartans lacked depth at middle linebacker even before Saucedo's injury.
- Speaking of linebackers, Arizona State suffered a similar blow at the position when coach Todd Graham said projected starter Carlos Mendoza will be out three-to-four weeks with a knee injury. He'll likely miss the opener and could be out even longer. The team is already rebuilding much of its front seven from last season and the loss of a likely starter at weakside linebacker will certainly hold that process up a bit. Graham also told reporters that defensive tackle Jaxon Hood would soon be back with the team after tending to a personal issue.
- Florida is primed for a bounce-back season and a new-look offense is one of the chief reasons for the optimism. With new coordinator Kurt Roper in charge, it appears the Gators are looking to take a few more shots down the field than they have in past years under Will Muschamp. "Coach Roper has really emphasized putting more air under it. His thing is more air equals more forgiveness," said starting quarterback Jeff Driskel. "It gives the receiver more time to adjust and receivers are just naturally better at locating the ball than DBs are, so just putting more air under it gives those guys more time to adjust to the ball."
- The news just keeps getting better for LSU defensive tackle Quentin Thomas. First, it was reported that the projected starter would miss the season with a torn biceps. Then, we learned that he wouldn't miss the year. Now, as it turns out, Thomas won't even miss a game. Time to play the lottery if you're Thomas.
- UCLA suffered a terrible scare when wide receiver Devin Lucien suffered a head injury and had to be taken to the hospital. While it sounds like the potential starter will be OK, the Bruins are expected to be cautious in bringing him back during training camp. However, the team will not lack for options at wide receiver in the meantime. One of the standout pass-catchers thus far has been the play of Eldridge Massington, who has made a number of big-time plays in the past week and looks to be fully recovered from a knee injury.
- Virginia Tech updated its depth chart on Wednesday. It should come as no surprise that Michael Brewer and Mark Leal are listed as the co-starters at quarterback in the race to replace Logan Thomas. Brewer, a transfer from Texas Tech, is still learning the offense but has been taking reps with the first team and seems to have made up quite a bit of ground on Leal early in camp. The Hokies also announced running back Jerome Wright and lineman Joe St. Germain are no longer with the program.
- We're reaching that time of the month where teams that held quarterback competitions are selecting a starter at the position, and Hawaii did just that by tapping Ikaika Woolsey as the guy. That's no surprise considering the options coach Norm Chow had on the islands -- Woolsey has been taking most of the first-team snaps in practice the past week. Texas A&M is expected to announce a replacement for Johnny Manziel at some point in the next few days, as well. At Kentucky, though, coach Mark Stoops said after the Wildcats' scrimmage that the team isn't close to naming a starter and has three players splitting first-team reps.
- Rutgers' move to the Big Ten has led to questions about whether the team has the depth to compete in the league, and the Scarlet Knights took a hit on the defensive side of the ball in practice, which is already forcing them to be creative with the roster. Head coach Kyle Flood announced that freshman cornerback Andre Boggs is out with an injury (the timetable for his recovery wasn't disclosed), and Flood moved running back Justin Goodwin -- the team's No. 2 rusher last season -- to defense on Wednesday to see if he could help out at corner. "At first I was kind of surprised," Goodwin said. "But whatever they need me to do to help the team out, I'm going to do."
*You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer. *
