The first day of spring arrived today with the beginning of football practice. It was a rather bland affair, at least until about 5:20 p.m. when the first fight of the year broke out. While most of us completed our brawling in the wee hours of the morning on this St. Patrick's Day weekend, Rob Lunn and Keith Gray showed it's never too late to show their Irish spirit by recreating a scene from John Wayne's "The Quiet Man". I think Mike Hicks (or at least his facemask) got caught in the cross fire, as well. The whistles blew, the scuffle ended, and that was that.

Both said afterward it was nothing but showing a little too much aggressiveness on the first day. "Sometimes (after all the time off) you just need to put the pads on and hit each other," said Lunn.

Gray said the offense vs. defense tension always mellows into more of a team feel after spring practice. "We're smart guys. We know enough not to do that in a game situation. Oh, make sure you get it in there that I won."

And if you've never seen "The Quiet Man", you've never really gotten into the St. Paddy's Day spirit.

Some news from the day...

• Defensive end Mike Cox suffered a knee injury last week, will undergo surgery and is finished not only for the spring but most likely at least half the season as well. Kendall Reyes should see plenty of action behind Julius Williams on the end.

• There's no official depth chart for the spring as of yet. Whether one is released at all before the spring game is unclear. Right now players at their positions are listed alphabetically, though Alex LaMagdelaine still managed to get to the top of the list at left guard over Gary Bardzak.

• Brad Kanuch tweaked a quadriceps muscle and didn't practice. Nothing to be concerned about.

• Tyler Lorenzen confirmed he's as close to 100 percent healthy as he's been in some time. He still practiced with his thumb taped, but says he's feeling fine.

• Randy Edsall has his eyes on receivers Ellis Gaulden and Rob Theoudele this spring. "It's a big spring for (them). We're going to find out if Ellis is going to be a guy in the rotation. He's finally healthy. Hopefully we'll see more of what he can do. I've seen a guy who'se very focused and intent on showing what he can do on the field."

I'm on deadline for the paper, so that's all for now.