After a short what turned out to be 40-minute practice Thursday night because of the weather the Wildcats shifted things to the morning for Friday. That means the team is done for the day and will get back to work tomorrow morning to finish out the second week of camp. Here's a rundown of what was talked about after practice on Friday.
* I knew I would jinx it by asking Rich Rodriguez about how much fun this team was to coach and he certainly wasn't as pleased with the team as he has been Friday. It came back to intensity and he didn't like what he saw at times Friday and he chalked it up to the heat most of all, but he still wasn't angry with what he was able to see in today's practice.
"Yeah we had a full practice today we went full pads," he said. "I was originally going to go shorts, but last night was a 40-minute practice. We got some good work in. I wasn't pleased with the intensity at times which is maybe to be expected because this is the first really hot day we had, but we'll continue to work through it and get better."
* There's a new emphasis on the rule preventing coaches from coming off the sidelines to argue calls and Rodriguez was asked for his thoughts on it today. As you can imagine he had plenty to say.
"Is it an issue?" he said. "I've been doing this a long time and one, they can't hear you and two, they're not listening anyway. So I don't know if that's a major issue. Seems like we're emphasizing that for what reason? Tell coaches stay in the box. Again, I think the officials do a great job overall but what I'd like to see and I made the suggestion have the head official available to talk to the media after every game. If there's a questionable call let him say, 'this is what we saw.'
"They're not always going to be right, but if I make a questionable call or a player makes a mistake the media is gonna ask about it what's the difference with an official? They're human. Ninety percent of the time they make the right call but when they don't everybody just wants to know why. I think they're trying to protect them a little bit ... whatever. I think those guys overall do a fantastic job, so I don't know why they're worried about coaches out on the field."
* Where Rodriguez's concern is right now and where he anticipates some change coming is with the pace of play and how long college football games take. He said he thinks a gam should last three hours but things have gone far beyond that and it's impacting things in his mind.
"I think they're going to make an effort to be more efficient coming out of TV timeouts or dead ball situations," he said. "It seems like there's a lot of dead time and that's why the games last so long. I think that's going to be addressed."
* I asked Rodriguez if Tyrell Johnson remains the fastest player on the team and he said that is still true but he said that freshman DJ Hinton has pushed and is one of the team's faster players in addition to a couple of the other newcomers. Rodriguez said he wishes the team could take more advantage of Johnson's speed.
"I just want him to run fast and not get knocked down so much," Rodriguez said. "I said, 'TJ, you can't run a 4.3 or whatever it is on your back so get by people.' He's working hard, he's had a good camp."
* Shawn Poindexter is someone Arizona wants to get another year out of after this season and Rodriguez said the team is going to try and see if the NCAA will grant him another season of eligibility. Poindexter said he is hoping he can be one of the top players to extend the field on deep passes. I asked him if there were any players we in the media don't talk about but who he thinks have a chance to play and shine this year and he mentioned redshirt junior Donovan Walker who is someone Rodriguez mentioned this week has been impressive in camp. The 6-foot-1 recruit was previously at UTEP before his career with the Wildcats started.
* I knew I would jinx it by asking Rich Rodriguez about how much fun this team was to coach and he certainly wasn't as pleased with the team as he has been Friday. It came back to intensity and he didn't like what he saw at times Friday and he chalked it up to the heat most of all, but he still wasn't angry with what he was able to see in today's practice.
"Yeah we had a full practice today we went full pads," he said. "I was originally going to go shorts, but last night was a 40-minute practice. We got some good work in. I wasn't pleased with the intensity at times which is maybe to be expected because this is the first really hot day we had, but we'll continue to work through it and get better."
* There's a new emphasis on the rule preventing coaches from coming off the sidelines to argue calls and Rodriguez was asked for his thoughts on it today. As you can imagine he had plenty to say.
"Is it an issue?" he said. "I've been doing this a long time and one, they can't hear you and two, they're not listening anyway. So I don't know if that's a major issue. Seems like we're emphasizing that for what reason? Tell coaches stay in the box. Again, I think the officials do a great job overall but what I'd like to see and I made the suggestion have the head official available to talk to the media after every game. If there's a questionable call let him say, 'this is what we saw.'
"They're not always going to be right, but if I make a questionable call or a player makes a mistake the media is gonna ask about it what's the difference with an official? They're human. Ninety percent of the time they make the right call but when they don't everybody just wants to know why. I think they're trying to protect them a little bit ... whatever. I think those guys overall do a fantastic job, so I don't know why they're worried about coaches out on the field."
* Where Rodriguez's concern is right now and where he anticipates some change coming is with the pace of play and how long college football games take. He said he thinks a gam should last three hours but things have gone far beyond that and it's impacting things in his mind.
"I think they're going to make an effort to be more efficient coming out of TV timeouts or dead ball situations," he said. "It seems like there's a lot of dead time and that's why the games last so long. I think that's going to be addressed."
* I asked Rodriguez if Tyrell Johnson remains the fastest player on the team and he said that is still true but he said that freshman DJ Hinton has pushed and is one of the team's faster players in addition to a couple of the other newcomers. Rodriguez said he wishes the team could take more advantage of Johnson's speed.
"I just want him to run fast and not get knocked down so much," Rodriguez said. "I said, 'TJ, you can't run a 4.3 or whatever it is on your back so get by people.' He's working hard, he's had a good camp."
* Shawn Poindexter is someone Arizona wants to get another year out of after this season and Rodriguez said the team is going to try and see if the NCAA will grant him another season of eligibility. Poindexter said he is hoping he can be one of the top players to extend the field on deep passes. I asked him if there were any players we in the media don't talk about but who he thinks have a chance to play and shine this year and he mentioned redshirt junior Donovan Walker who is someone Rodriguez mentioned this week has been impressive in camp. The 6-foot-1 recruit was previously at UTEP before his career with the Wildcats started.
