CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears hit the new purple and gray turf at Estes Stadium as a complete unit for the first time during Sunday’s practice, and seemed to enjoy themselves.

“We went into the stadium for the first time for part of practice and we got to play with a little more bounce over there,’ said head coach Clint Conque, entering his 12th season at UCA. “We’ll continue to work over there more and more to get used to the footing, the colors, the sun and all the different dynamics of playing in the stadium.’

While it was nice to work on the new turf, Conque was not as pleased with the overall effort on Day 2 as he was after the opening practice on Saturday.

“I thought it was a solid day, maybe not quite as crisp as Day 1,’ he said. “A lot of guys had to run the conditioning test yesterday and they probably had some soreness set in today. We have to be mentally tougher. We can’t let the physical things affect us mentally.

“The main problem was we had too many dropped balls. There is too much competition at wide receiver for guys to be dropping footballs. Certainly that will take care of itself as camp goes on. There is a lot of talent there and the cream is going to rise to the top. But all in all, I thought that was the most disappointing thing about today’s practice.

“There were four or five key drops throughout the practice today. And with no pads on, there are a lot of balls being thrown. We have to catch the football and then make plays down the field.’

Senior quarterback Nathan Dick continued to impress, as did a veteran and a pair of new receivers.

“I thought Nathan Dick was extremely sharp again,’ said Conque. “And I’ve been pleased with (redshirt freshman) Ryan Howard’s development. His arm is a little bit stronger, he’s a little bit bigger and stronger and he has a little bit more command of what we’re doing.

“I think (senior receiver) Isaiah (Jackson) had a pretty good day, as did (junior transfer receiver) Brett Soft. And (junior transfer Jesse) Grandy continues to impress with his speed. I think the four returning running backs (Jackie Hinton, Terence Bobo, Anthony Blackmon, Marcel Threat) all looked good catching the ball today.’

The Bears will don shoulder pads for the first time Monday and go full pads on Thursday. Also on the agenda this week is classroom work.

“This is going to be a very difficult week, being the last week of summer school,’ said Conque. “We have 46 or 47 young men that are in summer school who have another week of classes and tests and projects, yet we still have to get our work done on the football side. So it’s going to be a challenging week for the players and the coaches.’

Conque said Monday will be the first real evaluation period for both the offensive and defensive lines.

“It’s kind of hard to gauge the offensive line until you put on the shells,’ he said. “But I spent about 10-15 minutes watching them do their drill work today, and I like the length and the athleticism there. You can hear them making their calls and checks during the team periods.When you have four seniors (Matt Dickerson, Joe Lehocky, Brad Jakel, Logan Roubique) up front there, that’s the type of communication you should be getting.

“On the defensive line, what I see and what our coaches are telling us is, those guys are working really hard. But it’s really hard to gauge the line play until we put shoulder pads on tomorrow. This is a violent game, but you feel like you’ve been practicing basketball the last couple of days. But it was important to get the mechanics down and to teach how we want to practice.’

Conque said the defensive was solid on Sunday.

“Defensively, I thought we ran to the football better today,’ he said. “The thing we talk to our team about is six seconds of relentless effort, finishing every play. And yesterday I didn’t think we did that consistently in the pass skel portion of our practice.

“(Linebackers) Seth Allison and Frank Newsome are moving very, very well. A young man by the name of Josh Jones is starting to flash a little bit at corner. He played primarily on special teams as a redshirt freshman last year. He’s getting some looks because some guys can’t go right now at corner. And Marcus Peters is doing a nice job on the other side.’

The Bears will hold Media Day activities on Wednesday, followed by the Turf Open House that evening. Their first scrimmage is set for 4 p.m. Saturday in the stadium.