The first practice of 2016 Illinois football training camp has finally arrived. Coaches and players will participate in a total of 16 practices between now and August 20, and all sessions will be open to the public. Interestingly enough, though, it also sounds like the Fighting Illini will be looking to add a few more bodies before the season starts.

Though it hasn’t been officially announced by the school, Lovie Smith told Mark Tupper that the program will hold walk-on tryouts for full-time students later this month.

Smith has also announced he will hold tryouts for walk-on (non-scholarship) players. Full-time students are asked to attend an informational meeting at 5 p.m., Aug. 22 at the squad room on the lower level of the football complex at Memorial Stadium.

The actual tryouts will be held Aug. 25.

From what I can tell this tryout isn’t anything new for the Fighting Illini, as Google indicates something similar has taken place since at least 2012. I’d be willing to bet that this type of tryout has been around a lot longer than that, too, because it’s a fairly common practice for college programs.

For students interested in showing up, here’s what was required from 2015 candidates. I’d imagine the updated prerequisites will be similar this time around.

To participate in the tryout, a student must be currently enrolled full-time at the University of Illinois and must show official documentation of having passed a physical, including a sickle cell test, within the last six months. If needed, students can get a physical exam, with sickle cell test, at the McKinley Health Center on campus. Students also must bring their University ID to the meeting.

Students with the proper documentation will have a tryout Thursday, Sept. 10, provided they have completed the necessary requirements.

So this sounds like a really cool opportunity for former high school players on campus. There’s an approximately 0.01% chance of ever seeing playing time, but contributing to the scout team would be pretty damn cool, especially with Lovie Smith as the head coach.

We’ll make sure to update this post if/when Illinois confirms the tryout.

A tough summer of offseason conditioning workouts earned the Texas Longhorns offensive linemen a quite a feast on Wednesday, as position coach Matt Mattox hosted his players for a barbecue and some old-school Nintendo action.

Mattox served chicken, sausage, and several types of pulled meat. Anyone else feeling hungry now?

The team also took some time to pose for a group picture.

Lot of big dudes there, but how massive is junior offensive tackle Tristan Nickelson, who just completed a summer that saw him win dominate the heavyweight division of the “Battle for the Belts”?

Then it was time for Mattox to fire up his old Nintendo for some Tecmo Bowl and Duck Hunt action. Even his young daughter got involved.

Known as a much more relatable figure than former offensive line coach Joe Wickline, Mattox is working hard to ensure that his players get rewarded for their hard work and have the type of team chemistry that is crucial at the position group that perhaps requires more coordination than any other on the field.

So far so good, it appears.

Practice has began in Norman this morning, and we’re now less than a month away from the opener against Houston at NRG Stadium (I still call it Reliant Stadium). Each day leading up to the season, we’ll profile a player or event related to the number of days remaining until toe meets leather. Greg Pruitt would’ve been a great candidate for today, but we’ve decided to go a different route.

Oklahoma has had a lot of boom or bust players in the secondary in recent years. Few could be described this way more than Javon Harris, who stated for the Sooners at safety in 2011 and 2012.

Harris drew the ire of Sooner fans on multiple occasions, as he became known as someone who was prone to getting beat deep. But he also made some incredible plays in the secondary (most notably his diving pick against FSU in 2011) and was quite the hitter, as well. On Saturdays in the fall, we’d either curse his name or sing his praises, and there was rarely a middle ground.

NFL.com is counting down its list of the 25 college football teams with the most NFL-caliber talent, and naturally Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines rank pretty high.

The site released Nos. 6-10 today, with UM coming in right at No. 6:

Players to watch: TE Jake Butt, DE Taco Charlton, WR Jehu Chesson, CB Jeremy Clark, C Mason Cole, WR Amara Darboh, OG Kyle Kalis, CB Jourdan Lewis, OT Erik Magnuson, S Jabrill Peppers, RB De’Veon Smith, DL Chris Wormley

The outlook: Jim Harbaugh has wasted no time turning the Wolverines into a recruiting power, but he also has helped veterans reach their potential. Wormley, Charlton and Ryan Glasgow make up a strong defensive line, which will only make the talented cornerback duo of Lewis and Clark better. Peppers has looked the part of a top-five national recruit so far, starring on offense, defense and special teams. If Houston transfer QB John O’Korn performs as well as Jake Rudock did last season under Harbaugh’s tutelage, then Chesson and Butt will have career years.

Newcomer in the spotlight: DT Rashan Gary — The guy everyone wanted last spring ended up signing with Harbaugh. His strength and athleticism will make him a tough sit this season, as a lot of upperclassmen don’t have the skills of this 6-foot-5, 290-pound lineman. Gary can play any spot on the line, making him a valuable swing player as a freshman.

The only other Big Ten teams on the list so far are Ohio State (No. 7) and Michigan State (No. 11).

The top five haven’t been released yet, but it’s easy to image Michigan moving even further up as Harbaugh establishes himself in Ann Arbor.

Illinois football’s Wes Lunt was named to another preseason watch list on Thursday. The Fighting Illini senior is an early candidate for the 2016 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given to the nation’s top quarterback based on character, citizenship, scholastic achievement, leadership and athletic accomplishments. The award is exclusively for college seniors and four-year juniors on track to graduate. You can view the entire 42-player list right here.

Lunt joins Tommy Armstrong (Nebraska), J.T. Barrett (Ohio State), CJ Beathard (Iowa), Bart Houston (Wisconsin), Mitch Leidner (Minnesota), Tyler O’Connor (Michigan State), and John O’Korn (Michigan) as one of eight Big Ten players mentioned.

This is Lunt’s third honor of the preseason; he has also been named to watch lists for the Davey O’Brien Award (top quarterback) and Maxwell Award (top college player) last month.

Barring an injury during training camp, Lunt will be Illinois’ starting quarterback for the third-straight season. In 2015, he passed for 2,761 yards and 14 touchdowns while only throwing 7 interceptions. Which, all things considered, was a pretty fantastic year given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the program.

Fall camp has finally begun which means we have a load of updates on the roster and some changes that have taken place. Let’s dig in.

#cubuffs freshman DB Ca’Ron Baham has left the team and will transfer closer to his home in Louisiana

— Brian Howell (@BrianHowell33) August 4, 2016

Baham, a three-star wide receiver signee out of Marrero, Lousiana is already heading closer to home.

Senior DL Tyler Henington has decided to medically retire from the #cubuffs. He’s missed the last two years with injuries

— Brian Howell (@BrianHowell33) August 4, 2016

Bummer news on Henington, who could just not stay healthy during his time in Boulder. Best wishes on what comes next for Tyler.

Samson Kafovalu and NJ Falo are back after suspensions. Falo will also sit out the first three games. Dino Gordon still suspended #cubuffs

— Brian Howell (@BrianHowell33) August 4, 2016

Good news that we now have more clarity on Kafovalu and Falo, Dino still in limbo trying to work his way back.

#CUBuffs senior Jaleel Awini was listed as a QB on the initial camp roster but is practicing at WR, per CU.

— Adam Munsterteiger (@adamcm777) August 4, 2016

The more we can get Awini on the field the better. Still think he has a lot to offer this team.

SOURCE: Grad transfer Davis Webb has been named the new starting QB at #CAL. The 6-5, 225-pound Webb had a 46-22 TD-INT ratio at #TexasTech.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) August 4, 2016

It may not be Colorado but it’s certainly relevant. Whatever, Davis.

The Amway-USA Today Coaches Poll was released today. The Nebraska Cornhuskers, even though they finished with a win last year in the Foster Farms Bowl, were not in the Top 25.

The Huskers were in the “others receiving votes” part of the gig. If you take the order of the Top 25 and the others, Nebraska would be 38th in the rankings.

A few Nebraska opponents did fall in the Top 25 in the initial poll. Ohio State landed 5th, while Iowa starts the campaign out at 15th. Oregon, who comes to Memorial Stadium in September to highlight the non-conference slate, checks in at 22nd.

Wisconsin and Northwestern, while not ranked in the Top 25, did get more votes than Nebraska in the poll. Indiana did get one vote in the poll, from who I have no idea.

Nebraska Head Coach Mike Riley is a voter in the poll this season.

Here’s the full Top 25 voting results:

#TTU graduate transfer Davis Webb is named #Cal‘s starting quarterback https://t.co/eN3Nw5Ew0P

— Scout Recruiting (@scoutrecruiting) August 4, 2016

The saga of former Tech QB Davis Webb continues as he was named the new starting QB at Cal. This morning Cal head coach Sonny Dykes confirmed Webb will take over for No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Jared Goff.

The new Cal QB was named to the Maxwell Award Watch List in June, joining Red Raider Patrick Mahomes. This marks Webb’s second appearance on the list along with his sophomore season before 2014. He was also named the top senior quarterback by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr heading into this year’s college football season.

For his career Webb has completed 459 of 747 passes (61.4%) for a total of 5,557 yards with 46 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. He has a 138.4 passer efficiency rating for his career having played in 23 games and starting 14 of them.

Good luck this season Davis!

The Amway Coaches Poll was recently released ranking the Baylor Bears #21 in the country.  Interestingly they have us one spot behind North Carolina University who I believe are still having night terrors about the wildbear.

Notably this poll has already sparked a surprising response from one sports writer who says Baylor is the most underrated team in the poll.  You can read the article here.

OU is the highest ranked Big 12 team at #3 followed by TCU at #14 and OK State at #19.

The USA Today Coaches Preseason Poll is out this morning.

UCLA is ranked #24 with 296 points behind #23 Louisville who received 331 points and in front of #25 Florida who received 245 points.

Five Pac-12 teams appear in the top-25. Stanford leads the way at #7, USC is at #17, Washington is #18, Oregon is #22, and, of course, UCLA is #24.

Three more Pac-12 schools also received votes. Utah received 73 votes, Washington State received 47 votes, and Arizona received 2 votes.

This season, four Pac-12 coaches are on the panel. Southern Cal’s Clay Helton, Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez (which probably explains at least one of U of A’s two votes and, maybe, both), Washington’s Chris Petersen and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham are those coaches.

This poll is basically meaningless except for the fact that it means we are another step closer to kickoff.

Despite that, here are the results of the Preseason Coaches Poll:

Well, we’ve seen what happens when the preseason expectations are high. We always seem to fall flat.

At least with our preseason ranking lower than last year, the national expectations appear to be lower. Hopefully, that means we’ll be able to surprise some folks, especially in Week 4 when we face Stanford.

Go Bruins!!!