August 14, 2004
The Texas A&M football team looked solid on its first day of two-a-day practices on Saturday at the grass practice fields.
"We had a good physical morning with shoulder pads and helmets after wearing full pads (on Friday)," Texas A&M head coach Dennis Franchione said. "We went shorts this evening, primarily to keep everyone fresh. We get a lot done in shorts. We had a good two-minute drill against each other. It was an installation day. We put in goal line, red zone, short yardage, stuff like that. It was a good day. We've had seven good practices. The guys have had good attitudes and the weather has been helpful. It's been kind of like being in Colorado practicing or Utah maybe."
The weather was unseasonably cool for the third straight day, which Franchione said could enhance the learning process for the Aggies.
"From a learning standpoint, we're able to get a lot more done," Franchione said. "For a football player, with all the pads on, it can be a real challenge and I think it's helped us in our learning curve especially in this first week."
Franchione said the Aggies are emphasizing minimizing penalties by having football officials at the workouts.
"We try to have officials at every practice," Franchione said. "We're putting a major emphasis on turnovers, takeaways and penalties. We want the officials to be here and throw the flag right at who committed the foul and tell the player who committed it without slowing down the drill. We always deal with penalties at the end of practice both offensively and defensively."
Fifth-year senior defensive back Kevin Mangum of LaMarque, Texas received his degree in agricultural development with over 2,100 other A&M students during Friday's commencement exercises at Reed Arena.
Two players were excused from practice on Saturday while they attended a funeral. Byron Jones and Archie McDaniel of Bay City were at the funeral of former high school teammate Andrew Smith, who died in a tragic automobile accident last Saturday. Smith played quarterback at the University of North Texas.