Got some spare thoughts from Week Two of Austin Peay football practice coming up just as soon as we finish going 1-0 today…

• The energy is infectious. Contagious. These guys hustle. All the time. Every snap. Every rep. Every moment. Idleness is not on the menu here. This is an accountability factor as much as a team mindset—you do not want to be the guy on this team who makes anyone else ask, "Hey, what's this dude's problem?"
• Linebackers coach Mark Powell can be heard from all parts of the field, most of the upper reaches of the stadium and probably certain parts of the campus at large.
• I bet head coach Scotty Walden can run a 4.5 40 sprinting from one drill to the next.
• It's Draylen Ellis' world and we all live in it—the preseason Offensive Player of the Year has added some touch and some zip to his passes. Former Austin Peay baseball player Brock Lomax has swapped spikes for pads and displayed some good touch on the deep ball during Wednesday's practice.
• More on Ellis—really liked how quickly he was processing his reads and moving to second, third or fourth choices quickly.
• If such things were tracked, Coordinator of Player Personnel Jule Pace would lead the league in FBPM (Fist Bumps Per Minute).
• There's no faking the respect Walden commands of this team. If he hops in to provide instruction during a drill or skull session, every head snaps up and every eye is trained upon him.
• Freshman Iven Dayton is fasssssssssst. He's the one who dusts the entire field, here:

• At 9:50 a.m. exactly, everyone ran off the field. I thought maybe I had my times wrong for the day. It seemed like less than an hour worth of work wasn't much of a workout, to be honest. But there were a couple of staffers on the field and nothing had been picked up yet; what was going on? Ten minutes later—exactly 10 minutes—everyone was back on the field. When I asked about this later, I'm informed that they head into the Jenkins Indoor Facility to stretch every day. So that's new from past August camps.
• If there's a better linebacker duo than Jack McDonald and Troy Henderson Jr. in FCS football, that team should consider itself pretty fortunate.
• Ahmaad Tanner is looking shifty. Picks 'em up and puts 'em down with a quickness. Not necessarily what we've come to expect from the between-the-tackles plowhorse for the Govs, but a nice development nonetheless.
• Lots of happiness, lots of dancing. For a miserable hot August day, everyone is pretty happy to be here.
• Kordell Jackson might be pretty good. We'll keep an eye on that.
• Freshman Trey Goodman made a couple of nice snags during 1-on-1 work, including a juggling snag while dragging his feet along the red of the end zone. On the other side of 1-on-1, Isaiah Norman looks to have added significant upper-body strength and will pose a problem when pressuring opponents.
• Tight ends coach Brian Baca line-dancing to "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" was worth attending this practice session if nothing else had happened.
• How Powell can stand to wear hoodies in 95-degree heat is one of life's greatest mysteries.
• Will this team be good? Probably. Can never guarantee that sort of thing. Will they be fun, though? Absolutely. They will be very fun.