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Aug. 17, 2009

Louisville, Ky. - A day after taking the day off to particiapte in Basic Training at Fort Knox, the University of Louisville football team returned to its comfort zone - the practice field.

The Cardinals looked fresh after receiving its first day off of summer camp on Sunday. Well, it wasn't officially a day off because they did exert energy, they didn't have their pads on, which was a relief to many.

Louisville went through a productive 22-period practice under intense heat Monday afteroon on the practice fields.

The tempo and intensity was good for the most part despite the heat, which topped about 94 degrees.

As has been true to form all summer, the Cardinals opened the first three periods doing special teams work before Tuesday morning's second special teams scrimmage.

Practice seemed to be one of the better ones this summer, and the team continued to battle for different positions. On the offensive line, Byron Stingily and Greg Tomczyk seemed to be slated for the tackle positions, while Abdul Kuyateh and Mark Wetterer are the guards. Mario Benavides is working at center.

One important switch came when C.J. Peake was moved from safety to linebacker. Peake a talented prospect is better suited for linebacker because of his ability to hit and run to the football. Peake was destined to be lost in the secondary until he was moved to linebacker and immediately received more reps.

Safety Terrence Simien looks to have rapidly moved up the depth chart and was working with the first team for most of practice.

The Cardinals closed practice with a two-minute drill. With 1:56 to play, the offense trailed by six points and had a pair of timeouts. Justin Burke led the No. 1 offense to a score when he lofted a pass into the end zone and Josh Chichester went up and snagged it from Preston Pace. I thought he might have gotten away with a push, but the offensive coaches thought I was crazy. I never got the defense's impression.

The Cardinals will conduct their final two-a-day practice on Tuesday. The Cardinals will practice at 9:30 a.m. and again at 6:45 p.m.