Just like Sunday morning the Saints are scheduled to have a walk through in this first practice of the day. The team is rolling onto the field wearing just shorts and jersyes, no pads.

9:08 a.m. We've got a special visitor for practice this morning, he's a high profile college football coach that likes to wear visors. No we're not talking about Steve Spurrier, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops is wandering the sidelines right now. If anyone knows me or saw the shirt I was wearing right now, you'd understand why my blood boils a little at the sight of Stoops. I'm a graduate of the University of Texas and die-hard Longhorn fan. My feelings aside, I'm trying to figure out why he's here. I do know that starting left tackle Jammal Brown played for Stoops at OU.

9:16 a.m. Right now the only tie I have between Stoops and New Orleans is that his Sooners lost to LSU in the BCS title game at the Sugar Bowl in 2004. Wait, was that a low blow bringing up his past of BCS game losses. I apologize and will move on to Saints news of the day.

9:21 a.m. I don't expect this practice to be very intense, but tonight should be interesting. Want to let people know that the afternoon session has been moved from 3:40 p.m. at Millsaps to 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium, which is right across the street. It will remain open to the public. My best guess is that they want to beat the heat a little bit and Memorial Stadium, home of Jackson St., allows them to turn the lights on and remain on a grass surface.

9:25 a.m. Todd Blythe is back at practice after missing both workouts yesterday.

9:32 a.m. It looks like there is going to be a lot of special teams work this practice. The linemen have left the upper field. Receivers  Marques Colston, David Patten  and Devery Henderson are just tossing passes to each other off to the side. Jeremy Shockey is working one-on-one with the tight ends coach and the quarterbacks are nowhere to be seen.

9:42 a.m. Coach Payton and Stoops have been talking for the past 20 minutes and it looks like a good portion of the Oklahoma staff is here as well.

9:55 a.m. The guys are off to the cool room for a little break. Today is not quite as hot as yesterday was.because there's a light breeze, but it's warm enough.

9:58 a.m. Reggie Bush has been pretty committed to working on his kick return game all training camp. Bush did not go cool off and has remained on the field to work more on the special teams side of his game.

10:07 a.m. The kicking battle will surely come down to who is more accurate making field goals. But as far as Gramatica vs. Mehlhaff in kickoff duties, I'd give the edge to Gramatica a little. He put one through the back of the end zone while Mehlhaff was booting his about 3-4 yards deep in the end zone.

10:11 a.m. Just remembered another connection between the Saints and Oklahoma. Defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs used to be the head coach at OU from 1989-1994. Stoops though has had a little more success at the helm of the program than Gibbs did.

10:13 a.m. Looks like we're done with an uneventful morning practice. More notes to come in just a bit.

Press Conference Tidbits:

-As for moving the 2nd practice to tonight, Coach Payton says it will be a good change of pace for the guys and get them out of the heat. He also said he likes the grass surface at Memorial Stadium and the ability to get his team under the lights.

-As for Bob Stoops and his staff showing up, Payton says he extends an open invitation for college coaches to come and observe their workouts. Payton has a history with OU assistants Kevin Wilson and James Patten, working with them back in the mid-90's at Miami (Ohio). The Sooners staff will be around for a couple of days, watching practice, sitting in on meetings and just taking it all in. Payton says he's happy to have these guys because if college coaches aren't coming, that means they're not interested in what the Saints are doing.

-This morning's walk through was all about special teams and when we mention this unit the name Skyler Green always comes up. When asked about his chances of making this team, Payton said Green will have to show him something on special teams and that something will have to come in a pre-season game because it's hard to judge his return ability in practice.

-Tonight needs to be a sharp practice for the offense after a disappointing Monday. Coach Payton made it clear that his offense made poor decisions, especially in the red zone, during yesterday's workouts.