Practice kicked off a little late on Wednesday, which clearly frustrated all the Tebow and Alabama fans that crowded Ladd-Peebles Stadium. I spent the first part of practice watching the receivers and defensive backs. WRs Shay Hodge from Ole Miss continues to impress. He?s not the most physical guy here, but Hodge has consistently shown strong, soft hands. Others struggled with the sun on Wednesday, but Hodge tracked the ball nicely and snared some tougher long catches. He ran a nice double-move route where he sold the fake with good shoulder action and broke quickly, hitting top speed right away and leaving the DB (FSU?s Patrick Robinson) in his wake. UAB?s Joe Webb is making the conversion from quarterback, and it simultaneously looks like both a wise decision and a work in progress. He has good height (6?3?) and very long arms, and he made several good catches with his hands. During one drill he showed nice explosive speed but he needs to make sharper cuts and set up his routes better. Jeremy Williams of Tulane doesn?t play up to his 6?0? height, but he has the best footwork of the group and looks very comfortable going across the middle. His speed isn?t ideal and he?s not as shifty as a typical slot guy, and he?s not big enough to line up outside as a #1, which puts him in an odd spot. He showed good body control flagging down a couple of poor throws, and he quickly secured a slant before the safety arrived a step later. Andre Roberts from Citadel showed better feet on Wednesday, making some nice hard cuts and exploding out of them--not every time, but more often than before. He also earned points for coming back on a scramble to help out his QB, presenting a good target and making a nice sliding catch from Zac Robinson. Florida?s Riley Cooper really looks the part and he?s blessed with good speed, but his route running mechanics need a lot of work. He really gears down to make his cuts and had trouble locating the ball a few times. The South had better not have too many pass plays designed for their RBs, because other than Ole Miss? Dexter McCluster they are not good at all in passing mode. USC?s Stafon Johnson runs very stiff routes and consistently battled the ball with his hands, dropping more than he caught. Alabama?s Roy Upchurch had similar woes with his hands, and he also really gears down to make a cut. Ben Tate from Auburn caught the ball well in drills but missed a pass protect assignment in 11-on-11, a disturbing carryover from yesterday?s session. DBs The word that keeps springing to mind regarding the South secondary is ?overrated?. I was quite disappointed with Florida State?s Patrick Robinson, who really stood out during some ACC games but had a poor day. He got his feet crossed on a sharp cut from Roberts and tumbled to the ground on one play, and failed to locate the ball on an obvious fade route another time. He is quite fluid in individual drills but closes his hips and guesses too much in actual coverage situations. Another major disappointment, albeit a more expected one, is Kentucky?s Trevard Lindley. Very slight of build--his calves are pipe cleaners--he clutches and holds far too often and fails to get any sort of redirection. I like his closing speed and he has very nice hands, but he seems tentative and tight on the edge and really struggled to stay balanced when receivers got their hands on him. Javier Arenas of Alabama had a hit-and-miss day. He is scrappy and uses his hands very well for a smaller guy, but he doesn?t consistently burst out of his breaks. He also showed an alarming tendency to try and intercept every ball when the smart play would be to attack the receiver and stay under control. He fared well using inside technique and his confidence is unflappable. He has a lot of Nathan Vasher to him. Perrish Cox of Oklahoma State struggled in positional drills, getting beaten easily on a simple slant route one time and losing track of Mississippi State?s Anthony Dixon in the end zone on a rollout. But he shined in 11?s, making a very nice quick read and jumping a route for an INT one time and flashing the closing speed to break up another pass. He seems much more confident in his coverage with safety help, and he is very good at peeking at the QB in those situations. Read that as, ?If you draft him you?d better have a very good safety behind him?. Taylor Mays failed to impress once again. Honestly I?m not overtly seeking to criticize him, but once again he failed to make plays where plays were there to be made. Three straight times in the closing 11-on-11 drills he had chances to read the field and see where the ball was likely to go, but he failed to act and the throw got completed right where he should have been. On one of the plays the corner (Robinson) properly funneled the route inside to his safety help (Mays) but Mays either failed to anticipate it or failed to react. I was standing next to a recently retired NFL safety during this time and he exclaimed, ?What the f*** is he waiting for?? LSU safety Harry Coleman also struggles to quickly diagnose the action, and he lacks Mays? freakish speed. He fills the box nicely and he looked pretty good covering the tight ends, but he is not a zone cover safety or centerfielder. South Florida?s Nate Allen is smaller than the other safeties but he has the best instincts and most functional range of the group. He showed a real nice understanding of what the offense was going to do and quickly closed on the ball in front of him. His Bulls mate, CB Jerome Murphy, is another grabber that doesn?t come out of his breaks real quickly, but his arm length and physical strength help him compensate. He fared quite well in short-field conditions, blanketing a fade route and flipping his hips nicely to stay right with an inside slant. I spent a little time watching the big boys up front. Quick thoughts: Texas DT Lamarr Houston did a great job extending his arms with power and giving himself space to make his moves. He has very good lower body strength and displayed a nice bull rush. Auburn DE Antonio Coleman made a couple of very explosive outside moves to get around the tackle. He explodes out of his stance and does a good job of getting his inside shoulder under the outside shoulder of the tackle, and he showed he can break out of that and track down the QB with controlled speed. Ole Miss OL John Jerry had trouble with outside speed when lined up at tackle, but on a couple of running plays he sealed the edge with power, turning the defender?s shoulders and driving with his legs. Both he and LSU T Ciron Black received some attention early on about keeping their hands tighter inside, and Jerry clearly applied it quickly. Miami LB Darryl Sharpton is quite small (5?11?, 229) and he really struggled moving thru the trash and getting outside. His instincts and diagnosing skills are solid but he?s not as rangy as an undersized guy needs to be to succeed. There you go, a day of South practice notes with no mention of Tim Tebow! Try and find that anywhere else... Jeff.Risdon@RealGM.com