OXNARD, Calif. - Just minutes after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced the release of veteran wide receiver Terry Glenn, Sam Hurd strode across the field to the spot here in 2006 where he helped make his rookie mark.

Behind the end zone of the west field, with the afternoon shade his backdrop.

There, even after playing in the NFL two seasons, and stepping into the team's third receiver spot last year in Glenn's injured absence, Hurd went to work after practice on the Jugs machine - just as he had done his rookie season under the guidance of Terrell Owens.

"Put it on 45," Hurd instructed one of the team's young field assistants.

And then, one after another, Hurd caught passes not more than 10-yards away from where they were being shot out of the spinning wheels, coming at him at 45 mph.

Hurd, along with several other of the team's young receivers - Patrick Crayton, Miles Austin, Isaiah Stanback, and who knows, probably Mike Jefferson and possibly rookie Danny Amendola - gave the Cowboys the confidence to release Glenn, who sources said was in no condition to even practice here on Friday, the first day of the team's 2008 training camp at the River Ridge Sports Complex.

And that didn't have as much to do with his deteriorating right knee condition as it did not having worked out in the OTAs and mini-camps, along with not working hard enough on his own after he initially refused to sign the split contract Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had proposed to give the team injury protection.

When asked if he was in good enough physical condition to practice today, two sources said he wasn't.

So, the Cowboys will move on, but in actuality, go right back to where they were last year since Glenn only played four plays in 2007, all in the first half of the final game of the season. The same season quarterback Tony Romo set the team's single-season passing record.

That fact was not lost on Owens, the last player out of the locker room, joining his teammates at 2:22 p.m. (PDT) for the 2:30 practice.

"I think it's refreshing in a sense because we went into the season without him last year and some guys stepped up. We really didn't know what to expect coming into training camp - he missed OTAs," said Owens, who will turn 35 in December. "I think it's not going to slow us down by any means, and we're just going to keep on plugging away as if he was going to come back."

The Cowboys did not rule out the possibility of re-signing Glenn if he can get in better shape and show his knee is as good as it can get, but as Austin said, "Either way, it doesn't make any difference to me. We're going to work just as hard whether he was here and wasn't here."

Ellis Weighs In

For the past two starts to training camp, it's been Greg Ellis disenchanted with management. Last year, he missed the entire training camp and preseason after saying he re-injured his repaired Achilles in the very first practice at the Alamodome.

So Ellis, better than most, understands what Glenn must be going through after the issue of his signing the split contract in the end didn't become the deal-breaker most anticipated.

"You just keep going and do what you can control," said Ellis, the team's NFL Players Association rep. "You got to understand it's a business - you've got to do what's best for yourself. You put the team first, but you've got to make sure (of) 'Where do I fit in?'

"It's a business - that's what I try to convey to all the guys on the team. Don't take it personal, don't get mad at anybody. You're not going to play forever."

Short Shots

The Cowboys did sign first-year quarterback Jeff Terrell, who, with the release of Glenn, gives the Cowboys the rights to 80 players, with 78 of them signed. Terrell had a rather inauspicious Cowboys camp debut, getting picked off by safety Courtney Brown on a tipped pass by Bobby Carpenter and then throwing a wobbly duck far off the mark at the end of Friday's 7-on-7 drill . . . Former Cowboys Pro Bowl offensive tackle Erik Williams is back. Williams, who played 10 years for the Cowboys (1991-00), is one of the team's annual Fellowship Coaches and is helping his former offensive line coach Hudson Houck . . . Dallas Desperados wide receiver Anthony Armstrong has been signed by the Miami Dolphins. The Desperados' second-year receiver had worked out for the Dolphins, and once again it was a former Cowboys connection, now in Miami, bringing him into the fold. Brian Gaine, the Cowboys former assistant director of pro scouting, was hired early in the offseason by former Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells as the Dolphins' assistant director of pro personnel . . . The estimated opening day attendance here at the River Ridge Sports Complex on Friday was 3,800 . . . Saturday will mark the first two-a-day practice of the 2008 training camp, with the first practice beginning at 9:00 a.m. (PDT) and ending at 11:00 a.m., and the second practice beginning at 3:30 p.m. and concluding at 5:00 p.m. The pads are expected to come on.

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