There were a handful of players who got to spend time after practice pushing strength coach Bennie Wylie through the sand pit as Wylie steered one of those John Deere Gator mini utility vehicles.

And I don't mean they pushed him up and back and he turned it around at the end of the row. He steered it in zigzag fashion to maximize the players' time spent pushing through the sand. I mean this was s-s-s-l-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-w-w-w and p-a-a-a-instaking work.

Not sure if this punitive for being late to something or if these guys actually volunteered for the duty. But there was some serious building of leg muscles going on.

The second-team offense got all discombobulated at the end of Sunday's workout, during the sequence where they work on goal-line offense. In stepped a frustrated Mike Leach to order up-downs for all involved.

And, come to think of it, Leach said, the scout-team defense had been lousy, too. Up-downs for them as well.

Detron Lewis and McKinner Dixon didn't practice again today. Assume Dixon is resting his problem knee. Not sure of the specifics on what's bothering Lewis, but he was doing some conditioning work.

Cory Fowler went 4-for-4 today and made his simulated game-ending field goal at the end of practice. (Off the upright on the latter, but it caromed through.) Donnie Carona was 2-for-4 in special teams.

Fowler needed that, because Carona had been the better of the two each of the previous two practices.

You're probably going to see some of that this year. Sesay worked at defensive tackle throughout Sunday's practice.

One thing to be stressed here is it's not a position switch. Sesay remains a defensive end, but they want to see what he can do at both. Sesay says he's fine with it. In fact, over a week ago, he had mentioned that wherever they wanted to play him -- DE or DT -- was fine with him. He feels like he can do either.

During the team period, Sesay was part of a second-team front four that had Daniel Howard and Sandy Riley at end and Richard Jones at the other tackle.

Riley just keeps making plays, and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill acknowledged after practice that he's ahead of Brandon Sharpe based on what they've seen the first two weeks of camp.

--Freshman running back Brandon Reid returned to preseason camp Saturday after a week-long absence. He had gone home to deal with family issues.

--Those sitting out today included IR Detron Lewis and DE McKinner Dixon. Lewis was doing conditioning work. Dixon's Friday practice ended early with him favoring his right knee, so figure it's related to that.

--Mike Crabtree ran alongside Edward Britton as the No. 1 deep pairing on kickoff-return work. Lewis' being out might have had something to do with that. But coaches are proceeding with the idea that getting the ball in Crabtree's hands another two or three times a game via kick return might not be a bad thing.

--S Jordy Rowland was back in action today. He had bit of a scare Friday, taking a poke in the eye as he came up in run support. He was tended to on the side for the last 15 minutes of Friday's workout, but again, returned to the fray today.

--Defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill was frustrated during today's team period. The last few plays of team, the defense was in disarray -- players not getting calls to each other, players being in the wrong position, telling each other they needed to communicate better. Though it wasn't a scrimmage, McNeill yelled timeout to the offensive coaches and gathered his guys around him.
I don't think Mike Leach had planned to end the workout at that point -- probably a few plays later -- but in any event, it concluded on that note.

--Actually, it didn't conclude on that note. In the daily, game-ending field goal situation, Donnie Carona was good from 44 yards and Cory Fowler missed wide right. That's two days in a row that Carona's had the better of the competition. Fowler missed a couple from 40 and in on Friday.

--Players, coaches, the fans who showed up to Jones Stadium ... everybody got a break from the weather finally. Conditions were overcast with a temperature in the low 70s for today's 1:30 p.m. workout. And hey. It more or less stayed that way the whole time. None of this clouds burning off, followed by sweltering heat.
And the really good thing is, before I left home, I surfed over to the Weather Channel and saw highs forecast in the 70s for the next four days.

I don't generally do much quote-of-the-day stuff. If I did, there would be several candidates today.

Ruffin McNeill was giving Sam Fehoko all the tough love Fehoko could take during the inside running drill. McNeill wasn't pleased with Fehoko being misaligned and yelled at him more than once, "Your way might work! My way will work!'' And .. "I need you to play!'' The DC has gotten after Fehoko pretty good this week. He jumped on him the other day for lining up too deep and letting a running play come to him.

Anyhow, back to quotes of the day.

After Brent Nickerson got beat deep by Mike Crabtree, cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell had this for Nickerson: "Grab him, trip him, bite him, something.''

And after OLB Julius Howard got into the right position to make another play, McNeill pleasantly chimed in. "Isn't it easier when we work on it? I don't yell. I'm happy. My blood pressure's down. I'm bragging on you. Good work, Julius.''

Jordy Rowland's day ended early. He got poked in the eye as he came up in run support during one of the plays in team period and was out the rest of the time.

Seeing Rowland outside the locker room after practice, looks like he'll be OK. And he needs to be. Though guys who walk on from little towns sometimes get overlooked, Rowland's worked his way up and can play a significant role this season. He's a second-team safety and a first-unit guy when the Raiders go to a six-DB package.

DE McKinner Dixon also didn't finish the team period. Looks like his right knee's bothering him again. He was on the bench with it iced toward the end of practice. That's the troublesome knee that caused Dixon to drop his weight down to 250.

Marlon Williams and Brandon Sesay were sniping at each other today during the team period. No punches thrown or anything like that. They were several yards away from each other. But still seemed genuinely peeved as they jawed back and forth. And DL coach Charlie Sadler called Sesay aside and talked to him for a few minutes.

Interesting in that it's the second time this week that two prominent players have gotten into it in a little different fashion than the typical pushing and shoving and "fighting" that goes on all the time in scrimmage settings. Mike Crabtree and Bront Bird got hot at each other one day this week, both on the field and then an hour or more later going up the tunnel after practice.

Mike Leach acted unconcerned by tempers flaring the day of the Crabtree/Bird incident.

Team chemistry was a strength of last year's club and will have to be again for Tech to live up to its billing. Maybe these guys are just tired of looking at each other after the 12th day in a row of practice.

Tech's weekend practices have been moved up: Saturday's is at 1:30 p.m., two hours earlier than listed. Sunday's is at 3:30 p.m. It had been listed at 8 p.m.

The reasoning: After tonight, coaches are dropping the 8 p.m. team meeting that they've had nightly throughout practices. In turn, the earlier practice times Saturday and Sunday will give the players a longer night off and more recovery time.