Appalachian State University football began preparations for the 2009 season in earnest on Friday afternoon when the Mountaineers opened fall camp with a two-hour-and-forty-five-minute practice at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Per NCAA regulations, the Apps wore helmets but no pads and there was no contact in the year’s first practice. However, everything else looked much like it would in mid-season, as the pace mimicked that of a game week rather than the first full-team workout since the spring practice season wrapped up in March.

...

The noticeable difference, of course, was the absence of All-America quarterback Armanti Edwards, who is sidelined for 2-4 weeks with a foot injury sustained in a much-publicized non-football-related accident earlier this week. In his stead, sophomore DeAndre Presley took the majority of the snaps with the first team. Sophomore transfer Travaris Cadet and true freshman Jamal Jackson also saw time behind center.

Head coach Jerry Moore was quick to point out after practice that did not necessarily make Cadet and Jackson the leading candidates to join Edwards and Presley in ASU’s fold of signal-callers this fall.

“During camp, we’ll likely have a guy at quarterback one day and at receiver or defensive back the next and vice versa,” Moore said. “It wouldn’t be smart of us as coaches or fair to the guys who came in here as quarterbacks to not give all of them a chance to play quarterback. It’s a lot like when Armanti and CoCo (Hillary) came in together three years ago.”

While Cadet and Jackson were taking snaps, ASU’s other newcomers that were recruited with the possibility of playing quarterback saw significant time at other positions. Demetrius McCray was a significant contributor at cornerback, Jamill Lott was lined up at receiver for a number of snaps and Andrew Peacock was back receiving kicks during special-teams drills.

The first practice of the season wrapped up with a period of 11-on-11 drills and as is not unusual during the early stages of camp, the defense seemed to be a step ahead of the offense. Among the defensive highlights were a “sack” of Presley by all-conference defensive end Jabari Fletcher and a fumble recovery by Giavonni Scott.

By Appalachian State University Sports Information
http://www.goasu.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=21500&ATCLID=204771327