Second day of practice

End-around reverses, quarterback sneaks and flat out effort riddled the University of Florida practice field on Saturday.

Amid the watch of hundreds of eager Gator fans eyes, the UF football team took the practice field in pads for the first time this spring, and gave the fans a show.

"We had a pretty good, competitive day today," head coach Urban Meyer said.

Meyer was able to show off his team's intense practice regimen to the onlookers, which included position drills, a "circle of life" drill and team situation games.

The "circle of life" drill, as Meyer calls it, pits an offensive and defensive player against each other with the rest of the team circled around watching them push each other around.

The winner is the one to push the hardest or pin the other player down on the ground. The drills would set the level of intensity for even an early spring practice at a high level.

The highlight of practice, the part that garnered the most reaction from fans was the team situation drills, where the entire first and second team offenses would go against their counterparts on defense in different redzone situations.

The drills gave the fans and the defense a taste of the new offense being put into place by Meyer.

The defense began the drill well, taking the first two series' on a pass broken-up by Vernell Brown and a fumble by freshman quarterback Josh Portis.

After Portis' fumble, a visibly angry Meyer twice told the second-team offense to "get off" the field.

With a 2-0 deficit to the defense, the offense then scored on a 12-yard pass from junior quarterback Chris Leak to wide receiver Chad Jackson.

Jackson finished the drills with a team-high four touchdowns, including a highlight-reel grab in the back of the endzone and carrying the ball on a six-yard reverse play.

"I'm kind of liking the offense right now," Jackson said. "It's wide open and spread, you know, every one gets to touch the ball, it's a good offense, it's going to be good this year."

Jackson seems confident in the offense, and the revieving corps specifically, after their first full practice.

"We've got great receivers, you know, everybody's out here making plays," Jackson said. "I think we might have the best receivers in the country."

The teams were tied at 10 apiece with the first-teams on the field for the last play, from the one-yard line.

Leak decided to keep the ball and outran junior defensive lineman Steven Harris for the winning touchdown.

The games brought out the intensity in everyone, including Meyer, whose arms flailed up and down, trying to get everyone on the team pumped-up.

"He's fired up when its time to go," Jackson said. "He wants to see the guys out there that know how to play."

Coming into the 2005 practices, a position clearly up for grabs is the running back position, where Meyer has sounded unenthusiastic about the players' work ethic up to this point.

The running backs, specifically juniors DeShawn Wynn and Skyler Thornton had to make a name for themselves as practices go on.

Wynn only was given one handoff for a gain of four yards, while Thornton made an early statement with four carries for five yards and a pair of touchdowns.

"I think they did real good," Meyer said of the running backs. "I think Skyler ran hard, I think all three of them ran real hard. You're darn right it was a big day for them."

Though they won the drill, Meyer was uninspired by the performance as a whole of the offensive unit.

"If you think that's good offense then we got to show you some tape on some good offense," Meyer said. "It's good effort, they tried hard, but no, its not good offense."

The team will have enough opportunity to work on their offense and the defense, which seemed baffled at points during the drills, with the high amount of players being sent into motion and the offense being run almost exclusively out of the shotgun.

Practice will resume on Monday and continue regularly, weather permitting, throughout the week.

RATING THE RUNING BACKS

1. Skyler Thornton: Thornton showed both good field vision and power with his two touchdowns. He slipped through a hole for the first touchdown, of three-yards, then overpowered his way from the one-yard-line into the endzone for his second.

2. Markus Manson: Saw the majority of the carries for the second-team offense and did not disappoint. Carried the ball eight times for 22 yards and two touchdowns against the second-team defense, but had one costly fumble on a handoff from freshman quarterback Josh Portis

3. DeShawn Wynn: Saw limited action as he split time with Thornton with the first-team offense.

NOTES:

· Freshmen quarterback Portis and offensive lineman Eddie Haupt started for the second-team offense. Haupt was put at center and struggled early, with a bad snap to Portis that led to a fumble, but seemed to settle down as the drills went on. Portis looked comfortable calling plays out of the shotgun, and used his athleticism to run the ball a few times.

· If an MVP award were to be given out for the day, Jackson and Leak, who were both equally impressive, would share it. Leak was 4-8 for 28 yards and three touchdowns and added three carries for four yards and a touchdown.