Just got back from a day that included a few hours at the Hale Center, where Rutgers players reporting for pre-season camp, which begins tomorrow with a 3 p.m. practice.

Look for a story and a notebook in tomorrow's Trentonian.

A few notes and quotes I couldn't fit in the paper.

1. Members of the media who were waiting outside the Hale Center were sweating bullets -- and we weren't even wearing pads. The weather is supposed to be just as hot tomorrow when practice starts, and Greg Schiano said that will help make things a little more intense. "It's 100 out there in the parking lot. It's 130 down there in the stadium," he said. "It looks like mother nature is going to cooperate with us and help privide a little extra chaos a little extra test, which is good."

2. Tiquan Underwood said one of the highlights of his summer -- a good portion of which was spent working out with Mike Teel -- was watching a Yankees-Mets game from George Steinbrenner's box at Yankee Stadium, at which the Rutgers football and women's basketball teams were honored and Schiano threw out the first pitch. He said he thinks the Yanks will catch the Indians for the Wild Card, but despite having played some quarterback at Notre Dame High School and posessing a strong arm, he hadn't called Joe Torre and asked if he could help out in the bullpen.

3. One remarkable stat from last year is that Mike Teel was sacked only eight times, tied for the lowest total in the nation. He said that although he expects good things from the offensive line again this year, he tried to build up his strength over the offseason in case he's hurried and/or knocked down more often this year. "I worked over the offseason to try to get a lot
stronger and get ready and able to take those hits if they come," he said. "I probably got hit under 50 times, and for 12, 13 games that's pretty unique. You have to work hard and get your body in the best possible shape."

4. Schiano said one of the things he's looking forward to the most about camp is the competition for starting sports, especially on the offensive line and in the linebacking corps. "Competeition is going be one of the big words of his camp," he said. "It's always been but theres going be really intense competition in practice. You start at the center position on offense and go to the middle linebacker on defense. It starts up the gut and spreads from there."

5. Ray Rice, who wore long black basketball shorts and a whie t-shirt, was asked if he was bigger than he was last fall. "I think I'm stronger. I dont know," he said. "I look bigger. It might be the t shirt."

6. Rice on becoming more of a complete back by working on catching passes out of the backfield: "It's definitely a goal to become a complete back, to put myself in a situatuon to help my team win if i can do different things."

Should be interesting to see how everyone looks tomorrow. I'll have a story and notebook for Saturday's paper, but also more notes and quotes here at the blog late tomorrow night.

Any and all feedback and analysis is more than welcome.

- Ben