Practice No. 6/7: The Texas A&M football team had two practices in the same day for the first time, working out in full pads at the Coolidge practice fields Saturday morning for 2 hours, 25 minutes, then donning shoulder pads and helmets for 95 minutes in the afternoon in the McFerrin Center.
"I thought it was a physical practice this morning," A&M head coach Mike Sherman said. "As long as they keep working and we keep getting better, I'm happy. It certainly wasn't perfect, we made some mistakes, but I think we're getting a little better each day."
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Listening to Coach: The team closed the morning practice with a strong scrimmage session, fighting through the heat and fatigue to make plays on both sides of the football.
"It shows maybe a little more maturity than we had last year, when we had a lot younger guys," Sherman said.
They came back with an up-tempo afternoon workout.
"I told them in the locker room that in order for us to function, we've gotta have a trust factor," Sherman said. "I've gotta trust you and you have to trust me. And I'm going to take the pads off and we're going to go inside. I've gotta trust you that you'll practice fast and do things full speed. And they did."
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Family affairs: Sherman and defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter weren't the only ones in their families going through two-a-days. Both of their sons are doing the same at A&M Consolidated. Ben Sherman is an offensive lineman and Jake DeRuyter is a quarterback. Both players are seniors.
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Divided allegiance: Jennifer Roosma's T-shirt turned plenty of heads at the morning practice. It said: "I'm a Lumberjack."
It was highly unusual, because A&M practices are open to only Aggies and the season opener is against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks on Sept. 4 at Kyle Field.
"I never thought in a thousand years that we'd be playing Texas A&M," said Roosma, a senior at SFA majoring in gerontology, which is the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging.
Roosma's parents, Jason and Cindy, graduated from A&M in 1981. The younger Roosma, who was sporting an A&M hat as she sat beside her mother, will be at the opener as will her parents.
She said she's been a big supporter of her Lumberjacks, pointing out that they won the Southland Conference last year.
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Injury updates: A&M has several minor injuries, with most expected to be day-to-day.
Sitting out the afternoon session were junior running back Cyrus Gray (tweaked hamstring), sophomore cornerback Dustin Harris, junior strong safety Trent Hunter (sprained foot), freshman receiver/safety Malcome Kennedy and sophomore wide receiver Kenric McNeal (hip). They joined sophomore wide receiver Ryan Swope (quad) and sophomore free safety Steven Campbell (ankle) on the sidelines. Campbell ran Saturday and is expected back Monday. Swope, Harris and Kennedy should be back Tuesday or Wednesday.
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Punters struggle: Sophomore Ryan Epperson, junior transfer Jared Jaroszewski and junior Ken Wood struggled punting in the morning session going against a live rush for the first time. There were only a few well-struck balls.
"They've been punting it very good on their own, [but] without pressure," Sherman said. "But we put pressure on them today and they didn't handle it. They certainly all have the capability of being very good punters and kickers, but they have to be able to handle the mental aspect of it. People are going to rush you, and you have to trust your protection."
Junior place-kicker Randy Bullock also missed a couple of field goals during the kickers' live session. On the bright side, Sherman said the coverage and return units are doing well.
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Pretty impressive campers: Taking part in both practices and players' position meetings were 112 participants in the 18th Annual Kickoff Camp that was started by former head coach R.C. Slocum and has distributed more than $1 million to various groups, including the Evans Library and the Aggie Band.
There are several father-son tandems in the group including local home builders Larry and Coulter Mariott. Seven have attended every camp and 13 have attended at least 15. Other standouts in the three-day affair are Shariq Yosufzai, Chairman of the Board for the Association of Former Students; Porter Garner, President and CEO of the Association of Former Students; Rick Rickman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the 12th Man Foundation; Artie McFerrin, who received the 2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Neal Adams, chair elect for the Board of Trustees for the 12th Man Foundation; Tommy Bain, Chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association; Jon Heidkte, Senior Vice President and General Manager of FSN Southwest; Slocum; and Tommy Lohman, a recently elected member of the 2010 Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor. The group also included Aggie Athletic Hall of Honorees Arno Krebs and Tom Lyles.
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Crowd pleaser: Sophomore wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu made a long touchdown catch on a pass from senior quarterback Jerrod Johnson. Junior cornerback Coryell Judie and sophomore free safety Steven Terrell jumped trying to deny the catch by Nwachukwu, who came down with the ball as the defenders fell to the McFerrin Center turf with many of the campers clapping their approval.
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Next up: Practice No. 8 will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Kyle Field. It will be the first scrimmage of fall camp. ... A&M will have two practices Monday -- at 8:25 a.m. on the Coolidge practice fields and 4 p.m. at the McFerrin Center (closed). Outside practices are open to Aggies. Students, faculty and staff must show their A&M ID. Students and former students also will be admitted with an Aggie ring.
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