Fast & real: Friday news & notes

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Posted by: Pete Roussel on August 3, 2012

Rich Rodriguez asked his seniors to take hold of this team. Rodriguez said, "I met with them as a group yesterday and was asking them to take leadership, to take hold of this team, to take on more ownership in this team. I saw that today, really teaching the freshman what to do. I thought the seniors did a great job keeping them engaged in this practice."

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UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr. is pumped about his coaching staff. Mora said, "I think we're all on the same page with what it's going to take. It's fun to be in that environment, where everyone is pulling together. No one is pulling in opposite direction. There's no hidden agendas. There's no egos getting in the way of what we're trying to do as a team, so I think it bodes well for the future."

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As mentioned earlier today on the Coaching Search Ticker, former BYU quarterback Max Hall has joined the staff as a student-assistant. Bronco Mendenhall said he'll serve as an assistant quarterbacks coach.

Some other notable former players that are serving as student-assistants this year include Deuce McAllister (Ole Miss) and Chris Samuels (Alabama).

Wayne Moses is now officially the new running backs coach at Idaho. For Moses, it's his fifteen job since 1979. His timeline includes coaching stints at Cal State Fullerton, NC State, Bowling Green, Rutgers, San Diego State, New Mexico, UCLA, Cal, Washington, USC, Stanford, Pitt, Stanford, St. Louis Rams, UCLA, and Idaho.

Wayne and I were a part of the Stanford staff in 2003. Glad to see that he's landed at Idaho.

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Within the first 48-72 hours of August camp, it's typical that some head coaches compliment their head strength coach for a good well done over the summer. You always hear several head coaches say, "Our guy is the best strength coach in America, there's no question about it."

Top candidates to use the phrase this year include Urban (pretty much guaranteed), Dan Mullen, Dabo, and Todd Graham. Muschamp will probably wait until Jeff Dillman's second year to brag on him with the "best strength coach in the country" phrase.

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By the sound of things, Auburn defensive line coach Mike Pelton is going to work the dog out of his players and he is refusing to allow them to buy into the pre-season accolades.

Pelton said (in total chill mode), "This summer, I think a lot of them read the newspapers and heard people talking about that this should be the best part of the team. A lot of them believe that. The bottom line is that you got to come to work. We were the 11th ranked defensive line in our conference. I think we were 86^th overall. So that's where we're at, that's the perception of our defense. It's going to take working every rep, every day. It's going to take demanding their best. They got to understand that. And that's just the way it is. We're going to continue to drive 'em hard. They're just going to have to come up to our standards."

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