Houston Nutt equated today's practice, the eighth of 15 for spring drills, to running in mud, saying there were too many balls on the ground and mental busts.

Through it all Nutt said he saw improvement in the quarterbacks.

The majority of the snaps among the quarterbacks went to Randall Mackey, Barry Brunetti and Zack Stoudt.

That may be a reflection of Nathan Stanley's spring or the plain fact that the other three need all the reps they can get. Probably a combination of both.

Ja-Mes Logan had a nice day catching the ball with two long grabs from Mackey, one a diving effort near the 10-yard line in the 2-minute drill, the other a 30-ish touchdown catch on a crossing pattern.

As a whole, receivers have been inconsistent. Vincent Sanders had a touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone on a play kept alive by Brunetti's scrambling, but Sanders dropped a big gainer from Stoudt in the 2-minute drill.

Nutt doesn't seem too concerned that his offensive line hasn't really enforced its will against a defensive line with two redshirt freshmen at the tackles. Nutt says the staff is "throwing a lot at at them," but if Ole Miss is going to have success on offense next fall it's going to have to run the ball.

The staff understands this, and today Arkansas transfer Matt Hall played guard exclusively and ran most of his snaps with the first offense.

I like the potential of the offensive line, though I haven't seen it dominate this spring.

Maybe that's a good sign for the defense. DT Bryon Bennett is not a 300-pounder but is pretty athletic. Juco transfer Gilbert Pena hasn't made a quick impact. Another 300-pounder, juco transfer Uriah Grant, will arrive in August. There will still be mixing and matching along the front.

Two linemen left today's practice early, end Wayne Dorsey and DT Carlton Martin, with what Nutt described as slight concussions. They will be evaluated before returning to contact.