I spoke with coach Enos after CMU's practice today and got his thoughts on a few various issues such as key position battles, the young linebacker group, and how preparation is going for the opener versus Southeast Missouri State.

Also talked for several minutes with newly-anointed captain Cody Wilson, who says he has felt good over the past week and is returning to form from his injury. A story on him will run sometime in the next of week as well as several others leading up to the Aug. 30 kickoff. Right now we are trying to get all settled with prep football kicking off Thursday and Friday. After that, it's all CMU all the time.

On a sidenote, I was told by someone that Southeast Missouri State's presidents dislikes the school being referred to as SEMO. So out of respect, I am going to try and refrain from using that acronym despite laziness attempting to pull me in that direction.

Enos' thoughts from today:

"Starting today, we dedicated our full practice to (Southeast Missouri State). We did some little things last week to start getting ready, but today is where we really got it going. We gave the guys a couple of days off to freshen up a bit and it was nice to get back out here today. We basically had everyone participate in practice other than one of our true freshmen. That is the first time in three years that it has happened."

Concerning the naming of captains: "We have a lot of leaders. Joe Kinville, Jahleel (Addae), and Cody were obviously voted but we had a lot of guys getting votes. Darren Keyton, Jake Olson, Ryan Radcliff, Avery Cunningham even. But we definitely have a lot of seniors who are leaders. David Harman, our kicker, does a great job of leading. Our punter Curtis Huge does as well. We really like how many guys are stepping up as leaders this year. I told our guys that those three might be the captains, but everyone has to lead in their own way."

On position battles: "We are still looking at the backup quarterback spot. We've got guys there in really close competition. We have tight ends that are still battling, offensive linemen that are battling. We have d-linemen battling too, maybe not for who is going to play at the start of the game but who is going to get the reps by the end of the game. There is even a battle going on at the punter position, Richie Hogan and Curtis Huge are going at it. Our kickoff guys, Connor Gagnon and Ron Coluzzi, are still going at it. So we're still evaluating at many positions and we still have time. We're going to have good, physical practices through this week and probably by the end of the week we will have all of our decisions made."

On the linebacker position: "You know, we are young at linebacker but all of them have played. Shamari Benton is in his fourth year, he's started games. Justin Cherocci is in his third year and started games. Ryan Petro and Cody Lopez have both started games. So I think we are excited about those guys and they bring some experience, then those younger guys are going to have to come along a little bit."