April 1, 2008

The Baylor football team began its final week of spring practice with a two-hour full-pad workout on the grass practice fields Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday's pratice was the Bears' 12th of 15 spring workouts allowed by the NCAA.

"It was a good workout," said first-year Baylor head coach Art Briles. "We came out not quite as intense emotionally as we have been, but we got them rolling and finished up strong.

"All in all, it was a good day, we are just running out of days--that's the bad part," he added. "We are missing a few people here and there that are dropping along the way (due to injury). So, we just have to finish strong and have a good outing Saturday."

Junior linebacker Antonio Jones strained his MCL during Saturday's scrimmage and will miss the remainder of spring ball, as will junior wide receiver Ernest Smith who came down with mono over the weekend.

"I think we are real close honestly (to being game ready)," Briles said. "If we had to play this Saturday, we could play a game. We've got enough in on both sides of the ball. Special teams we really haven't worked all the way through, but we could clean that up in a couple days and be ready. We are close to game ready, we really are."

The Bears will take Wednesday off, then close out the spring with workouts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Baylor will practice at 4 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday, then conclude spring ball with a scrimmage on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Floyd Casey Stadium gates will open Saturday at 1 p.m. and admission to the intra-squad scrimmage is free. Following the scrimmage, fans will be allowed down on the field to mingle with the Baylor coaches and players as they have done in previous years.