Question: It seemed like Zavion Thomas had a couple of nice catches there. What are you kind of seeing from him, maybe this offseason that is kind of springing him to have some freshman reps there?

Leach: He's been really explosive in the offseason and has done a lot of really good things, and I think we are going to have to check him out and see if he's ready to play. Got to give him a little time in order to, you know, learn things, get comfortable, but he's explosive and does a lot of good things.

Question: When you don't have pads on, what are you looking for from your offensive linemen and specifically left tackle?

Leach: Effort and seeing if they're mirroring and covering their guys, you know. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. There will be times, especially in the run game, where it's distorted because nobody has pads, and they pull up, and occasionally somebody, whether it's offense or defense, pulls up less than the other guy, so it gets kind of distorted. The run game is the toughest part.

Question: Montez Sweat wore a Mississippi State pullover yesterday during his media opportunity. I noticed you guys are sending out those boxes. How important is it to stay plugged in with the former players?

Leach: I've always thought it was important. As a matter of fact, we've done that at Washington State, and we did it at Texas Tech, and I was glad to see they put it together and did it here because I think its really important, and that's the best advertising you get and plus it's on a national scale.

Question: Obviously, there's a big hole with Charles Cross gone at left tackle. Just so far, what have you seen from Dolla Bill (Kwatrivous Johnson) this offseason?

Leach: Doing some good things. Dolla, I think, has taken a step to the positive he has to keep rolling, keep improving, but I think overall, we have a chance to have more depth even though there isn't one guy not quite to Charles' caliber yet.

Question: What's different about Dolla Bill?

Leach: He's just put it all together. His body is better. He's lost weight. He's tightened it up. And then it really kind of clicks for him. He's more consistent.

Question: What's been the biggest thing you've seen from Sawyer Robertson today and the last couple of weeks to take a step forward?

Leach: I thought his pass skel was a little so-so. I thought he did a good job in team, and curiously he plays team better than skel. Usually, it's the other way around. He had a good team period today, I thought.

Question: I know you said that there's always competition for all those positions, but how much of a competition do you envision between Will Rogers and Sawyer Robertson?

Leach: It's difficult to say. We've got to watch it on film. Some of the physical things Sawyer can do are impressive, and then we got to see how it all links together to be kind of a day-to-day thing.

Question: It's been a while since Jordan Davis has been on the field for you guys. What have you seen from him that shows that he could make a pretty immediate impact upon returning this year?

Leach: He's good. He's explosive. He's got long limbs, and he's a tough guy to stop. He's always had a really good effort out there and still does, and he's a guy who's been through a lot of adversity, so he's used to battling against these things, and you can tell.

Question: What have you thought of the newcomers in the secondary like Jackie Matthews?

Leach: Some good stuff. He was here in the spring. He's really fast, that's one thing, that he is an inordinately fast guy. He has to keep improving. Sometimes he's fast in the wrong direction, but I think he's getting better.

Question: When you're setting up a practice plan pre-season, how much of it depends on the experience of the team, the age of the team, or the personnel you have as far as scripting the types of practices you have the first week or so?

Leach: Well, a lot of the format is the same. The general plays are the same, but it's how far you can go with the technique, and you try to limit what you do scheme-wise because none of it is good if you can't execute it.

Question: You have so many guys back this year, and I know you are going into year three here, and you have so many of those guys that were here the first year, so how does that kind of impact morale? The fact that you have all these talented guys and all this experience here in fall camp.

Leach: I think it helps. It feels like we have a stronger locker room than we've had.

Question: The players that were at SEC Media Days talked a lot about the kind of momentum that this program with jumping wins, particularly last season, but after dropping the last two, how do you feel you guys as a staff are able to maintain that momentum and not have a dry spell toward the end of the year that carries over?

Leach: I think a number of things. One is to get older. Two is that Covid was kind of a big obstacle, especially the bowl game. You know we were down 18 guys. In some cases, there were imbalances as far as how many scholarships one team to the next had. We were on the low end. We had 78. Some had as many as 98. We just got to play better, just keep doing the same thing and do it better.

Question: You mentioned Jordan Davis being back and all the adversity he's faced, but Jordan Davis, the football player you were talking about, how good he's looked. How much of a security blanket is that for you to you're not just getting him back but someone playing at a high level?

Leach: We have more d-lineman playing now than we did in spring, so that's good. Just the force and the push up-field are a lot more consistent. More guys are doing it.

Question: I know we'll know more over the long haul, but as far as the condition of the team coming out of summer workouts, how did you feel they came back?

Leach: It seems good. It seems like we're in better shape than we've been in the last two years.

Question: What have you seen from the secondary replacing a guy like Martin Emerson, a third-rounder? What's your confidence level in that group?

Leach: I think they've improved. They're a work in progress, but they've improved.

Question: Are you confident in that group to fill the void of his production?

Leach: Collectively, yeah. It's not one guy who does anything. It's about the whole unit. All these guys nobody's ever heard of, but all the previous guys everybody references nobody had heard of them at one time.

Question: Will Rogers had the third most prolific passing season in the Southeastern Conference last season, but it seems like he's not getting any pre-season respect. What are your thoughts on all that? What does he need to do?

Leach: He'll probably be better this year. We need to just do better, you know.

Question: How do you compare you guys coming in this year in terms of your confidence in this team heading into a fall camp compared to your other two years? Would you say this is the most confident you've been in this group?

Leach: Well, we're more familiar with one another. There's more guys that have played together.

Question: Can you go further, faster when you've got as much experience as you do? Especially when you're talking about getting ready for a game in 20-some days now.

Leach: Yeah, the older guys can help the younger guys. Not always verbally, but by example. You get better film as far as we want it like this type of thing, so you get examples on the screen.

Question: Was it last year that the NCAA cut back days in camp, days in pads, that sort of thing?

Leach: I forget. They do that all the time. This particular year, they've been running a circle for a long time, and you don't know what shoots out of the circle. So who knows? The only surprise would be if there were no more surprises.

Question: I was just wondering if you saw a difference in that with your planning and in camp last year.

Leach: Not really. We've always kind of done the same thing on a notepads day. The contact is different, but we do the same format and the same drills.

Question: You were talking about the condition of your team. Obviously, several of these guys kind of transform their bodies. Can you speak to Tyson Brown and the job that he's done for you over the last several years?

Leach: I think our strength staff does a really good job. They keep a certain variety. We're good at elevating speed, bringing guys back, and we've got to keep that up.

Question: How did Rara Thomas look today?

Leach: I thought he was average.

Question: We look at the shuffle you guys have on the offensive line and trying to fill some holes. How important is it to have LaQuinston Sharp back and kind of anchoring that line with his experience?

Leach: I think it's really important. He's kind of the leader. He's really good as far as vocally leading the group.