Most every SEC team has wound up spring ball – only Texas A&M has work left to do – and the head coaches jumped on a teleconference this morning to discuss the spring, among other things. We spoke with Dan Mullen, of course, and here are a few highlights.

• "I thought we played with a much bigger sense of urgency this spring, of trying to improve every single day of practice and worry about every play. There were a couple of different plays last year that could've turned our season around, and you never know when those plays are going to occur. I like the approach that our guys took, that every play was critical all spring."

• On tailback Vick Ballard's chances in the NFL: "His steadiness, he's built for that NFL game. He can catch the ball, he can block, he's a productive runner, he's going to be a really good special teams player. I think he's going to be pretty valuable to whatever team he goes to."

• On hotly contested position battles: "I know a lot of people make it a big deal of who's the starter. That's not always that big a deal to me. It's how many reps you're going to play."

• On wide receivers: "One of the things we're starting to see, some of our younger guys are really the more explosive potential playmakers, and our older guys are kind of the steady guys. … If we're going to have a great year, we're going to have to have our receivers, especially our senior receivers, play great."