Chris Smith is back and other notes...

• First thing first, WR Chris Smith is officially back. He isn’t at full strength because of hamstring injury, but he is back.

Smith declined comment on Monday.

“I don’t really have a comment yet,” he said. “I haven’t really been back yet, so I’m just going to head on in.”

Reno later explained, Smith doesn’t want to take any attention away from his teammates wants to get re-acclimated first.

I can respect that, I guess.

Meanwhile, WR Deon Randall is also back after missing last season.

“That’s huge,” QB Henry Furman said. “The speed of those two guys is really going to stretch defenses and allow us to exploit what they have to offer.”

TE Keith Coty is also back and should make an immediate impact.

• Tony Reno continues to praise captain and defensive end Beau Palin for his leadership and the way he’s been playing early in camp. DE Dylan Drake and DB Charles Cook are also two others that have stood out early in camp. The secondary is filled with a bunch of young players.

“It’s a work in progress back there,” Reno said.

• Led by seniors like Wes Gavin and John Oppenheimer, the offensive line has looked good and will be a strength of this year’s team.

• Reno won’t say much about the QB battle and noted guys were start to separate after the first scrimmage on Saturday. All of the seven QBS are getting reps. Clemson transfer Morgan Roberts looked good. He’s very fast with a pretty strong arm. Look for a feature on him later tonight/tomorrow. Eric Williams is still dealing with a shoulder injury (non-throwing shoulder).

Interesting quote from Roberts…

“Top to bottom, I don’t think people realize how good this team is and these players on this team. I hear that a lot. People ask me, ‘how’s the competition here compared to Clemson?’ Really there’s not much drop off at all. I don’t think people realize the type of athlete, the smarts, the instincts they have.”

• Reno says Varga is a more complete back coming into camp. He’s really improved his route running and understanding concepts.

• Keep an eye on Candler Rich. The 5-11, 190-pound freshman was getting a lot of reps in the backfield.

“He’s had a good couple of practices and shown some nice things,” Reno said.

•  And for scrimmages, there will be an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Yale Bowl. Scrimmage is open to the public. Then Yale will travel to play Brown on Sept. 7 at 1 p.m.