Utah State campus briefs

FOOTBALL: Monday served as not only Utah State football's second two-a-day of preseason camp, but it was also a tune-up for Tuesday's first scrimmage of the preseason for the Aggies.

USU head coach Gary Andersen and his staff put the squad through its second two-a-day practice, which came after their first off day of camp, getting Sunday off after the first week of camp.

"It was very good, physical practice this morning. The kids came out with a good attitude. The point of emphasis for us to take the next step is to continue to understand our schemes, both offensively and defensively, and on special teams. It was a solid day of practice, but our execution still has a ways to go," Andersen said.

After a full-pad practice in the morning, USU returned to action in the evening for practice in helmets, practice jerseys and helmets, fine-tuning things for Tuesday's scrimmage.

"Our afternoon practice was very brief, with no pads. We just wanted to get them ready for the scrimmage tomorrow and keep them fresh, so we worked a lot on the mental aspect of things. We also spent a lot of valuable time with the young kids," Andersen said.

Monday's practice gave both offensive and defensive units an opportunity to evaluate their first seven days of practice heading into Tuesday's scrimmage.

"I think everything went pretty well for the offense today," senior offensive tackle Spencer Johnson said. "We're still learning a lot and the younger guys are picking things up well. We still have a ways to go. There were a couple big plays today in both practices. Tomorrow will be a very good gauge as to where we're at as an offensive unit, and how much we have to work on."

The Aggies' first scrimmage is slated for roughly 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning at Merlin Olsen Field at Romney Stadium. The offensive, defensive and special teams units are anxious to see how their first scrimmage goes.

"As far as the defense goes, I think we had a bit of a down day. We had some mental mistakes in things that our coaches have been talking to us about.. We had too many fundamental and mental errors. We really need to clean those up for our scrimmage tomorrow," senior defensive tackle Sean Enesi. "As a defense, we did solid today but we have a lot of room for improvement."

Andersen singled out a pair of redshirt-freshmen in cornerback McCade Brady, who had a solid day highlighted by an interception during seven-on-seven, and linebacker Zach Vigil, who Andersen said will get a long look at the stud linebacker position on Tuesday.