I had my own two-a-day on Monday, stopping by Heritage in the morning to check up on Coach Wes Driskill's Pride and swinging by South Riding in the afternoon to get a look at Tom McIntyre's Freedom Eagles. I definitely picked the right day for it - 75 and sunny blue skies...The Heritage notes went up yesterday afternoon, and now it's time to catch up with the Freedom Eagles. The full team previews for each school will be up later this week with the Eagles going on the site Thursday and Heritage on Friday.

Last season the Eagles stumbled to an 0-10 mark (0-7 Dulles District) and failed to get things going on either side of the ball for most of the season. They averaged a meager 10.8 points per game while giving up 36.8 - not a combination that's going to get the job done. Fortunately for McIntyre and the Eagles, there's nowhere to go but up.

During my visit to Monday's practice, Freedom was working on addings a few offensive plays to their book and finished with some full-field seven-on-sevens.

Here are a few observations...

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Junior running back Jeff Pugh will once again be the focal point of opponents' defensive schemes. In last year's run first, run second, just keep running Eagles offense, Pugh amassed nearly 700 yards and accounted several of Freedom's touchdowns.

Pugh was in the backfield taking handoffs from the quarterbacks as new offensive coordinator Chris Bourassa ran through plays with his unit. The running back was not in the fray during any contact drills, however, as he is currently nursing a hip injury but looked solid in non-contact drills, practically running over his blockers. From the looks of it, he might be picking up the new offense a little more quickly than some of the other guys.

Even as the Eagles look to expand their offensive attack with a more balanced formula that includes numerous pass plays, Pugh will still be their catalyst. He's not the biggest back in the Dulles District, but he is excellent at reading the defense and finding holes to pickup yardage. For Freedom's new spread offense to be effective, Pugh will have to produce in order to take the pressure off whichever quarterback gets the starting nod.

OTHER NOTES

-- Yes, we've got another quarterback battle in training camp between senior Luke Braaten and sophomore Chuck Thompson. Both made a few solid throws during practice but neither seemed fully comfortable running the full gamit of Bourassa's plays during offensive work. It will be interesting to see who emerges as McIntyre's guy and whether he can provide enough consistency in the passing game to keep defenses honest against Pugh and the run.

-- Speaking of the running game, senior fullback/linebacker T.J. Mizell was another key component to the Eagles' backfield in 2007. Just from looking at him I could tell he'd spent some serious time in the weight room during the summer. He told me he was up to 5'9'' and 230 pounds, which means he'll be a serious load blocking for Pugh and carrying the ball himself. The only problem on Wednesday was he was in street clothes. Mizell was battling strep throat and wasn't even supposed to be at practice, but disregarded Dr. Mom's orders to get in some more observation of the new offense. Hey, at least he's eager and excited to be on the field. I'll have more from Mizell in tomorrow's Four Questions segment.

-- If you're looking for an exciting player to watch with serious quickness and upside, check out senior wideout Dakota Porter. With Pugh and Mizell out of the backfield for Monday's practice, Porter took quite a few snaps at running back and show-cased his speed. Both quarterbacks also looked his way several times for big gains in the air. But with injuries already plaguing the Eagles, Porter needs to be careful. He took several big wallops in practice and got up ginerly. With a small, wirery frame, he doesn't have much protection when the districts biggest linebackers come after him.

And now for today's poll question...