On one hand, I'm excited that football is finally here. On the other hand, we still hav four weeks of mostly the same practices until the opener against Arizona.

Dang.

So, the first day of practice: Lots of people there, including player's family members and more SLC sports radio guys than I can ever remember. The competition between The Zone and KFAN is heating up, I guess.

About two dozen newcomers, so here's what I've seen so far: Freshman running back J.J. DiLuigi is confident and athletic. He'll make a nice change of pace from BYU's big backs.

Then there's freshman quarterback Jason Munns. I mean, wow, this guy is a physical specimen. He's 6-foot-5, 225 pounds and throws a smooth ball. It looks like he's got good arm strength, at least on the medium throws I've watched so far. I started to think back about how prototype sized BYU quarterbacks have fared. If you look at the great ones in BYU history, most of them didn't have the size NFL scouts drool over. Giff Nielsen was good sized, as was Marc Wilson. Then there were guys like John Walsh, who washed out in the NFL, and recently Brett Engemann and Matt Berry. Just something to think about.

Another impressive freshman is safety Jordan Pendleton from Bingham. He's listed at 6-2, 195 but looks bigger. He probably won't play for a while but he looks like he's go the goods.

Also liked the looks of G Pittman, a freshman cornerback. He made some nice coverage movements during skelly.

What else? The No. 1 offense had trouble moving the ball against the No. 2 defense during team early on but by the end of practice, was moving smartly down the field. As I pointed out in my story, John Beck didn't throw an interception all fall camp last year. I think Brandon Doman told me John didn't throw one in spring, either. So Max Hall throws his first pick in the first practice, an underthrown fade route that Brandon Howard snared.