"After a slow start to practice, it might have ended up our best practice in terms of adding some emotion to the execution, which is something you have to manage," Mendenhall said. "One of the things that good teams have to do, with emotion, with confrontation, with animosity that develops between sides, is not to let that affect your execution. In the big games, that's a critical part of it. That was a teaching point for our team. As we came out of 'Cougar Drill,' both sides ended up having a lot of emotion. Then they have to play within their systems and within their schemes. Those who did that best today ended up having more success. As we learned last year in the big games, if you don't manage your emotions right, you don't play quite as well, especially in stretches. It was a really good lesson to have established early."

Mendenhall added that such confrontations are expected once contact begins. "Quite frankly, I'd be concerned if there wasn't that on the first day of pads," he said. "Not that it was orchestrated, but simply you would like them to be ready to be a little more aggressive and physical. The emotions of the coaches when they spend so many hours with these kids, trying to get them to perform, is part of it as well. That's part of the early development."

Defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen said the scuffle fired up the team as a whole.

"We started a little slow, but when something like that happens, everybody's emotions get going, even if you're not in the mix of it," he said. "It definitely got practice going. People competed more and moved faster. It set the tone for the rest of the day. People do dumb things out there. It happens all the time in football."

"That's just the name of the game. Everybody's competing and trying to win," said linebacker Bryan Kehl. "There's a fine line. You don't want too much of that, because as teammates we're a band of brothers. We don't want to hurt each other. At the same time, we don't want to be a bunch of pansies out there.

"The biggest thing is, you have to leave that right here on the field," Kehl continued. "Some people can't do that, but for the most part, everybody does leave it right there. As soon as we go into the locker room, it's done. When something happens out here, it stays out here. You don't bring that garbage into the locker room."

NOTES: The Cougars will begin two-a-days today ... They will hold their first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday ... Austin Collie, Bryce Mahuika and J.J. DiLuigi fielded punts during special teams drills ... Kehl and Scott Johnson recorded interceptions during Thursday's 11-on-11 drills ... Quarterback Max Hall threw a long touchdown strike to Austin Collie but the play was whistled dead just before he threw the ball ... Wide receiver Michael Reed did not participate in Thursday's practice due to an injured hamstring. He is expected to play in Saturday's scrimmage.

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E-mail: jeffcx@desnews.com