Heading into this week of practice, the question was whether Luke Falk would be 100 percent.

Falk answered that in Tuesday's practice and, while he wasn't quite as sharp on Wednesday, he continued to throw well. But backup Peyton Bender, who saw his first college action on the last drive of the game, has had a rough couple practices.

Normally Bender is very accurate but he's been misfiring frequently in the last two practices. More troubling, he's thrown to one spot while a receiver runs to another more than once, and there have been a couple interceptions as well.

We've already seen this season how important it is to have a good backup quarterback, so the Cougar need him to shake off whatever yips are affecting him. Also at practice I saw …

-- Remember when I wrote yesterday that Alijah Lee has been practicing well? Of course you do, each one of you has read every word I've ever written on this blog and I love you all for it. Anyway, Lee made me look good today, reeling off three or four decent runs, and I appreciate that.

-- One player who has put together two really good practices now is defensive lineman Austin Brown. A walk-on I assume, since he didn't join the team until school started and he's not in the media guide, Brown has held up really well in the one-on-one drills against the offensive line, drawing a lot of praise from Joe Salave'a. No, that doesn't mean the 305-pound freshman is going to shore up the run defense this week, or even that he'll ever play, but he's got a mean bull rush and is giving the offensive line a good look, if nothing else.

-- One player who has looked good the last two weeks and probably will play someday is Tyler Hilinksi. The freshman quarterback, who enrolled last spring, has just been throwing with more authority this week. He's taking more shots, stepping into his throws and the result are passes with more velocity than I'd seen before.

-- Liked what I saw from Charleston White today, the cornerback was flying all over the field. In fact, there was noticeably more energy at today's practice than I'd seen from the team in a week or so. Coaches were yelling, players were running around, and when the defense started to falter late in practice, Ivan McLennan and Jeremiah Allison started calling out players who were loafing and putting them on the spot.

-- Logan Tago and Ngalu Tapa were the dominant members of the second team defense, flying around a lot. I had thought that Tapa needed more conditioning work and that Tago would have to, I don't know, wait a year before playing extensively at one of the seven or so positions he could supposedly end up at. Looks like I was wrong on both counts.

-- The Cougars practice at 7 a.m. tomorrow so the practice report will come a little earlier than usual. I'll include the links in that post, rather than stay up late, because it's going to be an earlier morning than usual.

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