Bad weather ended Wednesday’s practice early, just before the team got around to running sprints. But that didn’t mean the guys didn’t have to run.

When a light rain turned into a downpour, coach Jim Leavitt huddled the team together and called practice.

Then it was an all-out sprint to the locker room.

Some work was done, though, despite the weather. The team got in about 1 1/2 hours of productive practice, which was a different story than Tuesday’s workout where Leavitt said no one did anything very well.

“Everybody was focused,” Leavitt said. “We had a good practice.”

Running back coach Carl Franks praised the play of his corps of backs as well.

“I thought they moved around well and gave good effort,” Franks said. “They were finishing off the runs and working on making some moves on the defensive backs and the scout teams. They had a pretty good day.”

Franks said it is hard to know where the running backs are at this point because he has a number of young players.

“We’ve got so many young guys that are trying to learn what to do,” Franks said. “Of course they’re going to make some mistakes, but they’ve been giving good effort and that’s the key thing we’re looking for is guys giving great effort.”

“We’ve got to get some of them healthy. We’ve got some bumps and bruises. But they had a pretty good practice today.”

Running back is a position where a few true freshmen may see playing time this season. Ricky Ponton of Hillsborough and Andre Copeland both could see action behind senior Clenton Crossley and JUCO transfer Andre Hall.

Bad Hair month: When the freshmen reported to camp at the beginning of August their heads were shaved by the veterans, as is tradition. Some upperclassmen couldn’t help but get involved in all the fun. Junior wide receiver Travis Lipp, senior offensive tackle Derrick Sarosi and others have been sporting mohawks for a few weeks now.