No morning links today as I got up early to catch the beginning of Washington's first of two practices today, which officially began at 8:45 a.m., though most players were on the field by 8:30 or so for informal work beforehand.

It loomed to be a pretty intense affair as the team was in full pads, and after the stretching and other warmup drills, began practice with a quick session of the "Husky drill,'' in which a defender and an offensive player line up against each other and go mano-a-mano in what is essentially a test of strength.

The first matchup --- between Casey Bulyca and Johnie Kirton --- ended a little testily. Bulyca appeared to get the better of Kirton, who as it ended, gave Bulyca a little shove from behind as he headed back to his group. Bulyca responded with his own shove and pretty soon players on both sides got into the fray. But it was quickly broken up and order restored, and it's the kind of thing that happens all the time in a football practice, particularly during the dog days of training camp. It's worth noting mostly as an indicator that this was likely to be a pretty iintense workout this morning after the team had Sunday off.

A few other practice notes:

--- Those not practicing were QB Jake Locker, CB Byron Davenport and RB Brandon Johnson, all with previously disclosed injuries, and LB Josh Gage, who must have suffered some sort of injury on Saturday. Hopefully we'll find out more about that later. Gage was on the sidelines wearing his jersey. Any long-term injury to Gage, slated as a starter, would obviously be a big blow with E.J. Savannah continuing to be off the team with no set timetable for a return.

--- Locker threw a few passes but otherwise didn't do anything other than a few dozen pushups while the rest of the team was doing conditioning. Johnson and Davenport rode stationary bikes during that time. Locker didn't ride the bike, surely not wanting to test the leg any yet, but didn't seem to limp as much as previously.

--- Chris Polk is still working with the tailbacks, and appeared to be working with tthe first unit during the warmup period, taking handoffs from Ronnie Fouch, who was in turn taking snaps from Matt Sedillo.

--- Ryan Tolar continues to work at center.

--- Juan Garcia was in full pads, indicating that he made it through Saturday's two-a-day practices just fine. He continues to skip some conditioning drills, such as those that involve a lot of lateral movement. But he also appears to be doing more and more with each day.

--- True freshman Jordan Polk spent a lot of the warmup period practicing receiving punts.

Players and coaches will meet the media around lunchtime, and the Huskies will have another practice this afternoon, so check back later for more.