College football’s reigning master of CoachSpeak, Cardinal mentor Steve Kragthorpe, held his final press conference of the pre-season Monday in anticipation of the opener against rival Kentucky. He called the Wildcats a “very, very good team.” He used the word “excited” a felonious number of times. I stopped counting when he hit double digits. The only actual news he shared was the season-ending torn ACL injury to linebacker Mozell Axson.

Other than that, Coach K said … NOTHING worth reporting.

On the other hand, articulate DL Earl Heyman was his usual gregarious, illuminating self. He mentioned several times how tough pre-season practice had been compared to past years. On the first day in full pads, he advised “there were four concussions.” He quoted one of the trainers as saying it was “the most physical practice he’d ever seen.”

Asked to comment on Hunter Cantwell, Heyman observed the new QB is “a critical thinker.” “I know that because we’ve played chess some and he beat me twice.” (c d kaplan)