WitP: Ikaika, Mauia, LP, RGM, Colt, Sopoaga

Chrissie Wywrot of Detroitlions.com profiles and has Q&As with second-year Lions Calvin Johnson and Ikaika Alama-Francis:

Alama-Francis on how much his growth has changed his mentality: “Last year, I was thinking of the big picture; this year’s it’s one day at a time, one play at a time. If you can do that mentally then things are going to fly by. You’re going to play real fast and you’re going to get better with your technique because then you’re really focused on what you’re doing now and you can only get better at it.”

Ikaika is getting a lot of motivation to improve from his coach, Rod Marinelli:

Second-year player Ikaika Alama-Francis is in the unenviable position of being the whipping boy for head coach Rod Marinelli. So far in camp, Marinelli has been riding him pretty good. The reason is because Alama-Francis is a tremendous athlete, but he's inconsistent in his play. During a one-on-one pass-rush drill on Saturday, Alama-Francis put a great move on lineman Chris Patrick and literally bowled him over with a bullrush. The entire defensive line started hooting and hollering.

Later, in a team drill, it was Marinelli who was hooting and hollering -- but not in a good way. While the rest of the defensive line had an excellent practice in exploding off the ball, Alama-Francis was inconsistent. Between plays, Marinelli marched up to the d-line and blew his stack, telling Alama-Francis in no uncertain terms exactly what he thought of his effort.

MiamiDolphins.com has a training camp preview, which mentions Davone Bess and Reagan Mauia battling for roster spots.

Mauia, 23, began his college career on the defensive side of the ball as a 350-pound nose guard. The sixth-round draft pick has dropped almost 100 pounds since then and at 6-0, 260, has the ideal build of a fullback. He beat out 12-year veteran Cory Schlesinger for the starting job last year as a rookie and played in all 16 games, starting nine of them. He was the lead blocker for Ronnie Brown as Brown rushed for 100 yards in four consecutive games and carried the ball himself four times for five yards.

Leonard Peters made an interception during Chicago Bears training camp yesterday.

First-year safety Leonard Peters, who is fighting for a roster spot, picked off a Caleb Hanie pass that was tipped by linebacker Nick Roach.

If you have a subscription to "Bear Report" or maybe just a paid Scout.com subscription, you can listen to this audio interview with Ryan Grice-Mullen.

From yesterday's Redskins training camp, here's an observation from the Washington Times.

The quarterbacks might have had their best practice as a unit in camp in the morning. Jason Campbell had several excellent throws, and both of the kids (Colt Brennan and Derek Devine) had their moments. Todd Collins still sprinkled in some erratic tosses, but overall the group played better. Play of the day honors goes to wideout Anthony Mix, who hauled in a one-handed catch from Brennan along the right sideline. Leigh Torrance had quality coverage and Brennan threw the ball nicely, but the catch was superb.

And Isaac Sopoaga made a big impression on at least one play in 49ers camp yesterday.

--- Isaac Sopoaga is pure muscle and force when he’s let loose to push up the middle on a pass rush. He methodically drove guard Tony Wragge eight yards into the backfield during 1-on-1 drills.

The article also has mentions of Ashley Lelie and Jeff Ulbrich.

Update #1: vid of Colt @ practice, Bess & Mauia, Cooke Field.