Today marked the first practice that the Chippewas were in full pads and there was plenty of hitting going on. Not a lot of roster notes to report on. Joe Sawicki was in a red jersey today, and hobbled on crutches, but still suited up in full pads, so hopefully his injury isn't too serious.

Here are some other notes from practice:
-Brett Hartmann has a strong leg and during practice he was able to punt the ball 60 yards from his spot a number of times. The key for him this year will be consistency. Many times throughout past seasons, we have seen him shank punts at the wrong time and CMU can't afford that this year.
-Sean Murnane continues to get a lot of pressure on the quarterback during drills. I thought maybe that had something to do with limited contact in practices prior to today, but it continued with full pads on. He has been a beast in the last week. My concern with him is that his body seems to be put together with tape and glue due to his previous injuries. I just hope he can stay healthy for his senior season.
-Dannie Bolden had some early highlights as he put a big hit on Reggie Brown after a long pass from Brandon Fricke and he also intercepted a Fricke pass on a nice play, but I suspect the interception came because of a missed route assignment by tight end Connor Odykirk.
-Dan Enos set up a third and short situation for the team to compete in and the defense won eight of the 11 snaps. There were a couple of fumbled snaps by the quarterbacks in that stretch and a few false starts as well. The defense really created a lot of push on the front line.
-Enos then set up a first and goal from the 3-yard line scenario and the offense went 6-for-6 in that. The first possession came down to fourth and goal from the two before Carl Volny blasted his way into the end zone. Volny and Zurlon Tipton had the best success in this drill, as they are the biggest running backs. Freshmen backs Ben Brown and Kevin King also scored in the drill.
-The final few minutes of practice had the offense and defense start at the home 30-yard line with the offense trying to drive the field. The first team struggled on offense except for a short pass to Matt Torres that he took for a long gain, which set up a 40-yard field goal attempt by freshman Paul Mudgett, which he missed wide right. Vince Agnew also had a sack during that series and he has had a good but quiet week.
-The third team then stepped on the field to end the day and they turned the ball over on downs on a 4th & 11 situation at about the 25-yard line. On the final play, Anthony Hollis broke up a pass in the end zone from Fricker to Valtorrey Showers. Leterrius Walton blew up a running play for a highlight in the series.
-Aaron Kaczmarski injured his left knee during the first team series, he attempted to keep going but couldn't put enough weight on his leg. The injury ended his day, but didn't seem to be too serious.

That is it for the day. I will be taking the next few practices off to focus on other assignments, mainly high school football. There is a scrimmage set up for Saturday that I will attend and provide notes for when it is done. As always, thanks for reading.