College hockey has been keeping me busy, but was able to slip in today's practice before heading up to Worcester, Mass. for the weekend to cover Yale against North Dakota in the NCAA tournament. Oh yeah, I'll be at pro day Wednesday, too.

A little from today's practice:

• Linebacker Emmanuel Omokaro injured a knee on Saturday, and will have surgery Friday. Omokaro, a redshirt junior from Danbury, is questionable for August. Randy Edsall said he'd know more after the surgery.

• Linebacker Sio Moore missed practice, but it wasn't anything serious, Edsall said. He'll be back by Saturday's practice.

• Pads and helmets for a contact practice Tuesday, and a couple of the true freshmen in camp for the first time learned valuable lessons. Safety Andrew Opoku seems to have a bright future, and got work with the first unit today. And there were a couple of teaching moments as well when Jordan Todman made Opoku look...well, like a true freshman on consecutive plays, including faking him out of his shoes on one move for a touchdown. Ditto linebacker Mike Osiecki, who was literally run over by Meme Wylie on one play when Osiecki didn't get square his shoulder pads to the tackler. "You OK Mike?" defensive coordinator Todd Orlando asked Osiecki, a little slow to recover after the play. When he indicated he was fine, Orlando said, "Welcome to college football."

• Said Edsall of Opoku and the young secondary, "The secondary, I'm not disappointed with any of those guys. Hey, Donald Brown didn't look good as a freshman after three days. And that's a hard position. It's just a matter of them getting repetitions, and the more they see the better they get. They're going to make mistakes. I'm expecting them to make mistakes."

• Edsall says he sees receivers Michael Smith, Isiah Moore and Kashif Moore playing with a lot of confidence. It's not quite there for the younger receivers, namely Nick Williams, Dwayne Difton, Mike Lang and Malik Generett. "They have to get repetitions to gain that confidence," Edsall said. "This is what spring practice is all about."

• Jerome Junior went through some very prominent growing pains on the field last season as a freshman, but the coaches are now looking to him to be a leader in a secondary with very little experience at the moment. Gary Wilburn and Harris Agbor are fourth-year juniors with little game action, and Blidi Wreh Wilson is out for the spring. Just about everywhere you look in the secondary, there's a new face. "I think what took place in the bowl game, the light went on with him," Edsall said of Junior, who played his best game against South Carolina back in January at the Papajohns.com Bowl. "He understands it now."

• In speaking about pro day and the potential for the UFL to be another option for his graduating players, Edsall said he's changed his mind about switching to field turf for Rentschler Field. Edsall had mentioned he wanted to see turf at Rentschler often, but now with the new UFL team openly campaigning to help pay for a switch, Edsall has changed his tune. "I think the grass gives us an advantage," Edsall said. "I'd rather keep the grass."

Hope to see you back tomorrow for Pro Day.