Signs of the early-morning sunshine peek over the trees at KU football practice on Tuesday.

Signs of the early-morning sunshine peek over the trees at KU football practice on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning marked the first half of the first two-a-day practices for the Kansas University football team this fall.

And, from the looks and sounds of all the energy out on the field, the Jayhawks were rather pumped up about it.

Typically, the morning session of two-a-days is a high-energy practice and that’s for a couple of reasons. No. 1, the players are used to getting up early as many of them have been doing 6 and 8 a.m. lifts throughout the summer anyway. No. 2, it’s cooler in the mornings and that makes it easier to go nuts.

Now, this year that hasn’t been as much of an draw because it just hasn’t been as hot as it normally is in August. But I’m sure those guys who were all padded up and wearing helmets did not mind the cooler morning for today’s practice.

Here are a quick couple of things that caught my eye this morning. We’re headed back for a Weis press conference at 11:45.

• I spent some extra time watching the wide receivers today and a name you should not completely discard is Josh Ford. He opened fall camp at No. 2 on the depth chart and looks like he could be sticking there. He looks to be in great shape and has always had good size. Confidence and catching the football were his biggest issues last year so it’ll be worth watching how those things stack up as fall camp progresses.

• We’ve already talked a little about juco transfer Rodriguez Coleman, but I watched him a little more today and I came away even more intrigued by what’s possible here. From what I can tell, he’s kind of like a wild stallion who’s just waiting to be released. All of his movements, even during basic drills, are explosive and his long legs and tall frame make him look even wilder. Word is that he’s had an impressive camp so far and I think he’ll quickly become a huge part of the passing game. Not only does he have top-end speed, but he also appears to have a great vertical leap.

• Tre’ Parmalee and Andrew Turzili are still very much alive in the hunt for receptions. They’ve got their work cut out for them, but they may yet be factors. One thing I noticed about Jake Heaps’ record-setting year at BYU was that he spread the ball around a lot. He had something like 10 or 12 guys catch at least double-digit passes during that fall of 2010. A lot of that was probably because of the offense they ran, but, clearly, Heaps is comfortable getting the ball to multiple guys.

• Finally, one other quick note today on the defensive side of the ball – I spent some time watching linebacker Prinz Kande and I thought he looked good. His body looks bigger than ever and he moved around pretty well out there. It’s hard to say how bouncing back from the injury is affecting him, but if you didn’t know he was hurt you probably wouldn’t be able to guess that from watching him.

The KU defense huddles in the end zone after running through a drill designed to handle turnover transitions at Tuesday's practice.