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Football Coach Looks At Offense, Coaching Changes And Incoming Freshmen In Second Part Of Spring Chat
May 08, 2009 | Football
12) Offensively, let's start right where everybody wants. Does Princeton have a No. 1 quarterback coming out of the spring?
We have two kids who can probably end up getting the job, Tommy Wornham and Harrison Daniels. I think Tommy is a little further ahead in the throwing aspect; I think Harrison is a little further ahead in the running aspect. Both of them improved immensely during the spring. And both of them have a long way to go. We're going to have to see how comfortable they get; we may not make a final decision until after our scrimmage with Rowan. So far, I'm very pleased with their development. Clearly, we're going to have to be able to run the ball effectively to take the pressure off them. If they can deliver the ball and make good decisions as the season goes on, we'll have a better chance to win games with them as the season goes on. I would say both have a shot to be the man; I'd say Tommy is probably a little bit ahead of Harrison right now, but how they both progress over the summer and during camp will make the difference.
13) Jeff Terrell was third on the depth chart entering the 2005 camp and won 16 of his next 20 games as the starter. How many guys do you think could make that kind of progress over the summer?
The wild card is Brett Kan. He missed the spring because of an injury. He did the same thing last year and had to miss the year because of Ivy League rules and not being able to red-shirt. He was a very good high school quarterback, but because of his injury, he wasn't able to develop as quickly as we might have hoped. So he might be the wild card. We have two other kids in Andrew Dixon and Drew Ellis who both understand what we're doing, but I don't think they've performed at quite the same level as the other guys yet. My gut says that one of the three ? Wornham, Harrison or Kan ? will be the guy, but we'll have to see how it all shakes out.
14) After such a brilliant season, where do you see room for improvement in Jordan Culbreath's game?
Well, his pass protection can get a little bit better. I think finishing runs; there were a lot of runs where he got tackled inside the 5 but not in the end zone. I've been casually twisting the knife a little, telling him ?Can't you finish a run?' Our main thing is to make sure we keep him healthy, so that he's there to perform, and keeping him sharp but not putting him in position to risk injuries. It'll be one of our big coaching dilemmas, because from his perspective, he wants to be in there for every snap. He doesn't like to take a backseat to anybody. He didn't play in the Spring Game. I told Jordan before the game that he would get about five snaps and he wasn't happy with it, but he understands his value to the team.
15) How does the return of Kenny Gunter affect your offensive options next season?
Kenny was a little rusty when he came back after missing a year, but he can play a number of positions. He can catch the ball. He has very good size and speed. He can play tailback or fullback. He can be a big, blocking wide receiver in our sets, and put him and Jordan in the backfield, wow, that gives you two guys who can go the distance every time they touch the ball. Because Jordan took so many hits last year, around the Cornell-Penn-Yale games, I thought those hits began to take their toll. While he had that great game against Dartmouth with 276 yards, he didn't have a game the next week and could leave it all out there. With Kenny back, hopefully we can make sure Jordan's body and legs remain fresh through all 10 games so he remains just as productive in games eight and nine as he was for the first game. It's hard for me to fathom when you'd ever want to take the ball out of Jordan's hands, and it's probably never. But we probably have to just to ensure that he can produce the way he is capable of every time he touches the ball.
16) You have two different backs in Matt Zimmerman and Ryan Smith who have brought different strengths to the fullback position. Do you see using them both in different circumstances next year?
Yes, absolutely. Zimmerman is one tough, highly competitive kid who will hit you in the face, and you'd have to break his leg to keep him off the field. Ryan actually had a great year catching passes last year. He had a big catch against Cornell, and he continued to catch the ball well in the spring, and his blocking and pass protection have gotten better all the time. Those guys give us great options. When we go one-back, we can split either of them out and they both can catch, or we can keep them in the backfield to protect or put another wide receiver in.
17) Going back to 2005 for a second, you had a new quarterback and a heavily experienced offensive line, and that line seemed to make Terrell's transition easier. With four seniors expected to start next year, do you think that needs to happen again?
I think our line has to be one of the strengths of our program next year. As I said earlier, it's going to have to be a situation where we can run the ball effectively to take the pressure off whoever the starting quarterback is. Hopefully we can allow the quarterback to mature and still find ways to win games, while whoever that is has a steep learning curve and picks it up quickly. It's nice to have four seniors, including three who have started a lot of games around here. A couple of them were starters as freshmen during our championship season. I think our toughness as a team and our work ethic as a team is reflected in our offensive line and their character, and I'm really excited about these guys. Marc Daou had a great offseason and really improved himself athletically. Andrew Hauser has really developed himself into a leader on the offensive line, as well as Mark Paski. Moving Hauser to center is going to help us a lot. All three of those guys have had a great offseason. J.P. Makrai did not practice in the spring because he had a bit of a foot issue, but again, he started a lot of games for us. Hopefully there is a tougher attitude, a more physical attitude to help our quarterback get better and to make sure we run the ball effectively.
18) The tight end position hasn't been All-Ivy quality since Jon Dekker's departure. The next candidate seems to be Harry Flaherty, although Brandon Glyck seemed to do good things in the Spring Game. Do you see that position being a more focal point in the offense in 2009?
The kid who might have been the biggest surprise there this spring was Adam Fee. Adam was a linebacker who we moved to the tight end position, and he really had a great spring. So right now, I would say it's Harry, then Adam, then Glyck would be the third guy as a possible backside tight end. Brandon is a guy who is like a road raider when he blocks, but he is still adjusting to the position change from defensive lineman last year. He and Adam both are in their infancy when it comes to experience at the position. As they get a little more savvy, I think they will only improve. Harry continues to get stronger and continues to be a threat down the field. I think he really could be a very good tight end next year.
19) The only real impact receiver you had last year was Will Thanheiser, and he isn't suiting up next year. You seem to have talented youth there, but what needs to happen for them to be ready to make an impact next year?
The point made from earlier fits here. It's all about execution. You have to catch the balls that are catchable. You have to be in the right position. We've gone to a little more sight-adjusting of routes because we have more experience there; we didn't think we could do that the last couple of years because of our youth. Trey Peacock had a very good spring game, and I think a very good spring overall. His performance has given our coaching staff a mandate that we have to get him the ball because he can make big plays. Jeb Heavenrich returns from a year off, and he's a big-time player/playmaker/returner. We missed him a lot last year; he would have impacted the overall quality of our receiving corps last year. So I think those two guys have a chance to be very good. Andrew Kerr, who is going to be a junior, is coming into his own and he can be that possession-type of receiver. You can go to him anytime, especially third downs, and he is a very physical blocker on the perimeter. And we're hoping that Matt Ransom continues to develop and gets to the point where he can help us as well. Unfortunately, Isaac Serwanga, who we thought could be pretty good next year, broke his wrist and will not be able to play next year. I would say those four guys will be our primary guys right now, but we'll see how everybody comes back in the fall.
20) Special teams; in particular, the kicking game: Are both kicker and punter open races at this point, or did Ben Bologna do enough last season to at least be a strong frontrunner.
Ben would be slightly ahead, based on experience. He's kicked in big games, so you know nothing is going to rattle him. He is a fierce competitor as well. I did think Patrick Jacob and Otavio Fleury had some very good moments in the spring. I've had meetings with all three of them, and none of them stepped right up and said, ?I'm the man.' I told them all that if the game is on the line, I'm not sure who I trust yet. Again, Ben has had the pressure already, so he's probably a little more ready to handle it, but nobody did enough in the spring to warrant handing them the job right now. They're all going to have to work hard in the summer, and we have two freshmen coming in, Joe Cloud and Andrew Bierschenk, who are both very good kickers as well, so the job is really wide open for placekicking, kickoffs and punts.
21) Princeton ranked in the bottom half of the league in kickoff and punt return average last year and haven't returned a kick for a touchdown in 34 games. Has it been scheme or personnel, and is there a player or two you can envision making a real impact?
We've looked at all things. We've looked at schematics to see if we can become more effective, and we've looked at the personnel on the team that executes those schematics. Anytime you have good returners, you're going to have a good return team. We had great returns when we had Greg Fields and Jay McCareins, probably two of the best at that position in the league. Matt Ransom handled our punt return duties last year. A lot of teams are now going to the rugby kick; initially, I thought we hadn't gotten much productivity, but when we went back and looked at the film, not many of the kicks he had were returnable. He did a great job of catching the ones he could get to; he might have only missed two all year. We're not getting balls we can return as easily. In the kickoff return, we're looking for that guy that can break it open. We tried a couple different guys there, and that job is wide open. We need somebody who can step in there and make a difference. In addition, we have looked at schematics there, to see if we can be more effective at getting the ball carrier those lanes that he needs to at least make one miss and maybe go the distance.
22) Talk about your two new coaching hires and your early impressions?
I couldn't be more pleased with both of them. Gary Goff comes from a very knowledgeable lineage of coaches. He played for both Mike Leach and Hal Mumme, and he coached for Hal Mumme and the “Air Raid” offense. He clearly brings some unique passing concepts that I think can help us. Ron Wisniewski has been part of three national championship teams: two at Northern Colorado and one at Montana. He's been at Wyoming for the last five years and brings a wealth of knowledge, both in the passing game and screens and also in tempo: quick game, tempo, that kind of stuff. So we're trying to incorporate the knowledge that fits what we do. We're still a good running team and want to remain that way, but clearly we felt if our passing game had been more effective, maybe we don't have a conversation about three close losses. Maybe those are three close wins. So a major emphasis in the spring has been to incorporate their ideas and make sure we try to get more efficient throwing the ball. I couldn't be more pleased to get that quality of experience on our staff with the wealth of new ideas to make our whole attack better.
23) You shifted some coaching responsibilities over the offseason, including your own. Discuss them, and do you plan on maintaining them into the 2009 season.
Well, I fired my quarterback coach, which is me. Basically, with my responsibilities, trust me that the best part of my day is being out on the field with the players. I love coaching quarterbacks; with that said, the demands of a head coach and all the hats I have to wear take away from my time. As I looked at it, I wondered if the time I have to do other things and not be with the quarterbacks may have slowed their growth a bit. I know that we have young guys coming back who will need somebody there all the time and maybe some extra meeting time that I might not always be able to have. So I shifted Dave Rackovan to quarterbacks because I trust him and he knows what we want. He played quarterback and coached quarterbacks before. I also felt like our special teams had not performed at the level we needed to, and I needed to put more of my time there. Frankly, I think it sends a message to the team that with the head coach paying a lot of attention to special teams, it's important and we need to be sure we are devoting enough time and effort there.
Last spring, Scott Sallach had surgery and had to miss spring practice. At that time, we took EJ Henderson over and had him coach the wide receivers. I thought he did a phenomenal job and I felt like with the experience we had at running back and EJ's knowledge of our offense already, it was a natural fit to take him and have him coach running backs. With that said, Dave Rackovan took a walk-on runner and helped turn him into the best back in the league, which is an amazing job of coaching. So I struggled a little, wondering about taking a coach who has done that and move him away from that position, but I felt comfortable doing it because EJ was here and knew the offense.
Now, if I take EJ away from Eric Jackson in the secondary, and Eric has always had some kind of help there, what was I going to do? It made sense to send Steve Verbit, who has coached defensive backs before, there. More importantly, Matt Borich has done such a great job maturing as a young coach ? he's been with us for five years ? that he was ready for more responsibility on the defensive line. By giving Matt more responsibility on the defensive line, it allowed Verbs, as the coordinator of the defense, more opportunity to float between positions and help out where he could. I think it will help him get a better overall sense of where the defense is. It was not without some soul-searching to arrive to this conclusion, but after spring practices, I really felt like our quarterbacks matured a lot faster than they would have because of the time Dave could spend with them. We saw no dropoff in the running backs from EJ's perspective and I think, defensively, it allowed Verbs to be more in tune with both the front end and back end of our defense while Matt was doing a great job with the defensive line. I think we're going to be better with these moves.
24) Finally, can you give your overall impressions of the Class of 2013?
Well, I don't know any coach who doesn't think right now that he didn't recruit the number one class in the country. With that said, overall I'm very pleased. I think we helped ourselves in the offensive and defensive lines. Especially those defensive linemen, because we have less experience than the offensive line, they may help us there. Matt Landry and Caraun Reid both had very good high school seasons and might be able to help us there. We're pretty experienced at linebacker, but I do think we have some good ones coming in, and I'm really pleased about a couple of the secondary guys we have coming in. Again, we have some experience there, but those guys might help us on special teams. We have a very good kicker in Andrew Bierschenk coming in and a very good punter in Joe Cloud coming in. We have a long snapper in Jason Tiemeier coming in who might have the opportunity that Ryan Pritchard had four years ago; with Pritchard graduating, he could come in and help us. At the quarterback position, we'll see how they pan out. We're pleased with Tim Dondanville and Stuart Ahlum, and we'll see how they develop in the system. Running back wise, with Sean Conrad, Akil Sharp and a fullback in Joe Riposta coming in, they all have a chance to help us in some capacity. A position I think we really did well is the tight end position. We have Mark Hayes coming in from Tulsa, Zack Glatter from Virginia, and both have a chance to help us in some capacity if they can learn the system and come in in great shape. Overall, I'm very pleased with the group.
We have two kids who can probably end up getting the job, Tommy Wornham and Harrison Daniels. I think Tommy is a little further ahead in the throwing aspect; I think Harrison is a little further ahead in the running aspect. Both of them improved immensely during the spring. And both of them have a long way to go. We're going to have to see how comfortable they get; we may not make a final decision until after our scrimmage with Rowan. So far, I'm very pleased with their development. Clearly, we're going to have to be able to run the ball effectively to take the pressure off them. If they can deliver the ball and make good decisions as the season goes on, we'll have a better chance to win games with them as the season goes on. I would say both have a shot to be the man; I'd say Tommy is probably a little bit ahead of Harrison right now, but how they both progress over the summer and during camp will make the difference.
13) Jeff Terrell was third on the depth chart entering the 2005 camp and won 16 of his next 20 games as the starter. How many guys do you think could make that kind of progress over the summer?
The wild card is Brett Kan. He missed the spring because of an injury. He did the same thing last year and had to miss the year because of Ivy League rules and not being able to red-shirt. He was a very good high school quarterback, but because of his injury, he wasn't able to develop as quickly as we might have hoped. So he might be the wild card. We have two other kids in Andrew Dixon and Drew Ellis who both understand what we're doing, but I don't think they've performed at quite the same level as the other guys yet. My gut says that one of the three ? Wornham, Harrison or Kan ? will be the guy, but we'll have to see how it all shakes out.
14) After such a brilliant season, where do you see room for improvement in Jordan Culbreath's game?
Well, his pass protection can get a little bit better. I think finishing runs; there were a lot of runs where he got tackled inside the 5 but not in the end zone. I've been casually twisting the knife a little, telling him ?Can't you finish a run?' Our main thing is to make sure we keep him healthy, so that he's there to perform, and keeping him sharp but not putting him in position to risk injuries. It'll be one of our big coaching dilemmas, because from his perspective, he wants to be in there for every snap. He doesn't like to take a backseat to anybody. He didn't play in the Spring Game. I told Jordan before the game that he would get about five snaps and he wasn't happy with it, but he understands his value to the team.
15) How does the return of Kenny Gunter affect your offensive options next season?
Kenny was a little rusty when he came back after missing a year, but he can play a number of positions. He can catch the ball. He has very good size and speed. He can play tailback or fullback. He can be a big, blocking wide receiver in our sets, and put him and Jordan in the backfield, wow, that gives you two guys who can go the distance every time they touch the ball. Because Jordan took so many hits last year, around the Cornell-Penn-Yale games, I thought those hits began to take their toll. While he had that great game against Dartmouth with 276 yards, he didn't have a game the next week and could leave it all out there. With Kenny back, hopefully we can make sure Jordan's body and legs remain fresh through all 10 games so he remains just as productive in games eight and nine as he was for the first game. It's hard for me to fathom when you'd ever want to take the ball out of Jordan's hands, and it's probably never. But we probably have to just to ensure that he can produce the way he is capable of every time he touches the ball.
16) You have two different backs in Matt Zimmerman and Ryan Smith who have brought different strengths to the fullback position. Do you see using them both in different circumstances next year?
Yes, absolutely. Zimmerman is one tough, highly competitive kid who will hit you in the face, and you'd have to break his leg to keep him off the field. Ryan actually had a great year catching passes last year. He had a big catch against Cornell, and he continued to catch the ball well in the spring, and his blocking and pass protection have gotten better all the time. Those guys give us great options. When we go one-back, we can split either of them out and they both can catch, or we can keep them in the backfield to protect or put another wide receiver in.
17) Going back to 2005 for a second, you had a new quarterback and a heavily experienced offensive line, and that line seemed to make Terrell's transition easier. With four seniors expected to start next year, do you think that needs to happen again?
I think our line has to be one of the strengths of our program next year. As I said earlier, it's going to have to be a situation where we can run the ball effectively to take the pressure off whoever the starting quarterback is. Hopefully we can allow the quarterback to mature and still find ways to win games, while whoever that is has a steep learning curve and picks it up quickly. It's nice to have four seniors, including three who have started a lot of games around here. A couple of them were starters as freshmen during our championship season. I think our toughness as a team and our work ethic as a team is reflected in our offensive line and their character, and I'm really excited about these guys. Marc Daou had a great offseason and really improved himself athletically. Andrew Hauser has really developed himself into a leader on the offensive line, as well as Mark Paski. Moving Hauser to center is going to help us a lot. All three of those guys have had a great offseason. J.P. Makrai did not practice in the spring because he had a bit of a foot issue, but again, he started a lot of games for us. Hopefully there is a tougher attitude, a more physical attitude to help our quarterback get better and to make sure we run the ball effectively.
18) The tight end position hasn't been All-Ivy quality since Jon Dekker's departure. The next candidate seems to be Harry Flaherty, although Brandon Glyck seemed to do good things in the Spring Game. Do you see that position being a more focal point in the offense in 2009?
The kid who might have been the biggest surprise there this spring was Adam Fee. Adam was a linebacker who we moved to the tight end position, and he really had a great spring. So right now, I would say it's Harry, then Adam, then Glyck would be the third guy as a possible backside tight end. Brandon is a guy who is like a road raider when he blocks, but he is still adjusting to the position change from defensive lineman last year. He and Adam both are in their infancy when it comes to experience at the position. As they get a little more savvy, I think they will only improve. Harry continues to get stronger and continues to be a threat down the field. I think he really could be a very good tight end next year.
19) The only real impact receiver you had last year was Will Thanheiser, and he isn't suiting up next year. You seem to have talented youth there, but what needs to happen for them to be ready to make an impact next year?
The point made from earlier fits here. It's all about execution. You have to catch the balls that are catchable. You have to be in the right position. We've gone to a little more sight-adjusting of routes because we have more experience there; we didn't think we could do that the last couple of years because of our youth. Trey Peacock had a very good spring game, and I think a very good spring overall. His performance has given our coaching staff a mandate that we have to get him the ball because he can make big plays. Jeb Heavenrich returns from a year off, and he's a big-time player/playmaker/returner. We missed him a lot last year; he would have impacted the overall quality of our receiving corps last year. So I think those two guys have a chance to be very good. Andrew Kerr, who is going to be a junior, is coming into his own and he can be that possession-type of receiver. You can go to him anytime, especially third downs, and he is a very physical blocker on the perimeter. And we're hoping that Matt Ransom continues to develop and gets to the point where he can help us as well. Unfortunately, Isaac Serwanga, who we thought could be pretty good next year, broke his wrist and will not be able to play next year. I would say those four guys will be our primary guys right now, but we'll see how everybody comes back in the fall.
20) Special teams; in particular, the kicking game: Are both kicker and punter open races at this point, or did Ben Bologna do enough last season to at least be a strong frontrunner.
Ben would be slightly ahead, based on experience. He's kicked in big games, so you know nothing is going to rattle him. He is a fierce competitor as well. I did think Patrick Jacob and Otavio Fleury had some very good moments in the spring. I've had meetings with all three of them, and none of them stepped right up and said, ?I'm the man.' I told them all that if the game is on the line, I'm not sure who I trust yet. Again, Ben has had the pressure already, so he's probably a little more ready to handle it, but nobody did enough in the spring to warrant handing them the job right now. They're all going to have to work hard in the summer, and we have two freshmen coming in, Joe Cloud and Andrew Bierschenk, who are both very good kickers as well, so the job is really wide open for placekicking, kickoffs and punts.
21) Princeton ranked in the bottom half of the league in kickoff and punt return average last year and haven't returned a kick for a touchdown in 34 games. Has it been scheme or personnel, and is there a player or two you can envision making a real impact?
We've looked at all things. We've looked at schematics to see if we can become more effective, and we've looked at the personnel on the team that executes those schematics. Anytime you have good returners, you're going to have a good return team. We had great returns when we had Greg Fields and Jay McCareins, probably two of the best at that position in the league. Matt Ransom handled our punt return duties last year. A lot of teams are now going to the rugby kick; initially, I thought we hadn't gotten much productivity, but when we went back and looked at the film, not many of the kicks he had were returnable. He did a great job of catching the ones he could get to; he might have only missed two all year. We're not getting balls we can return as easily. In the kickoff return, we're looking for that guy that can break it open. We tried a couple different guys there, and that job is wide open. We need somebody who can step in there and make a difference. In addition, we have looked at schematics there, to see if we can be more effective at getting the ball carrier those lanes that he needs to at least make one miss and maybe go the distance.
22) Talk about your two new coaching hires and your early impressions?
I couldn't be more pleased with both of them. Gary Goff comes from a very knowledgeable lineage of coaches. He played for both Mike Leach and Hal Mumme, and he coached for Hal Mumme and the “Air Raid” offense. He clearly brings some unique passing concepts that I think can help us. Ron Wisniewski has been part of three national championship teams: two at Northern Colorado and one at Montana. He's been at Wyoming for the last five years and brings a wealth of knowledge, both in the passing game and screens and also in tempo: quick game, tempo, that kind of stuff. So we're trying to incorporate the knowledge that fits what we do. We're still a good running team and want to remain that way, but clearly we felt if our passing game had been more effective, maybe we don't have a conversation about three close losses. Maybe those are three close wins. So a major emphasis in the spring has been to incorporate their ideas and make sure we try to get more efficient throwing the ball. I couldn't be more pleased to get that quality of experience on our staff with the wealth of new ideas to make our whole attack better.
23) You shifted some coaching responsibilities over the offseason, including your own. Discuss them, and do you plan on maintaining them into the 2009 season.
Well, I fired my quarterback coach, which is me. Basically, with my responsibilities, trust me that the best part of my day is being out on the field with the players. I love coaching quarterbacks; with that said, the demands of a head coach and all the hats I have to wear take away from my time. As I looked at it, I wondered if the time I have to do other things and not be with the quarterbacks may have slowed their growth a bit. I know that we have young guys coming back who will need somebody there all the time and maybe some extra meeting time that I might not always be able to have. So I shifted Dave Rackovan to quarterbacks because I trust him and he knows what we want. He played quarterback and coached quarterbacks before. I also felt like our special teams had not performed at the level we needed to, and I needed to put more of my time there. Frankly, I think it sends a message to the team that with the head coach paying a lot of attention to special teams, it's important and we need to be sure we are devoting enough time and effort there.
Last spring, Scott Sallach had surgery and had to miss spring practice. At that time, we took EJ Henderson over and had him coach the wide receivers. I thought he did a phenomenal job and I felt like with the experience we had at running back and EJ's knowledge of our offense already, it was a natural fit to take him and have him coach running backs. With that said, Dave Rackovan took a walk-on runner and helped turn him into the best back in the league, which is an amazing job of coaching. So I struggled a little, wondering about taking a coach who has done that and move him away from that position, but I felt comfortable doing it because EJ was here and knew the offense.
Now, if I take EJ away from Eric Jackson in the secondary, and Eric has always had some kind of help there, what was I going to do? It made sense to send Steve Verbit, who has coached defensive backs before, there. More importantly, Matt Borich has done such a great job maturing as a young coach ? he's been with us for five years ? that he was ready for more responsibility on the defensive line. By giving Matt more responsibility on the defensive line, it allowed Verbs, as the coordinator of the defense, more opportunity to float between positions and help out where he could. I think it will help him get a better overall sense of where the defense is. It was not without some soul-searching to arrive to this conclusion, but after spring practices, I really felt like our quarterbacks matured a lot faster than they would have because of the time Dave could spend with them. We saw no dropoff in the running backs from EJ's perspective and I think, defensively, it allowed Verbs to be more in tune with both the front end and back end of our defense while Matt was doing a great job with the defensive line. I think we're going to be better with these moves.
24) Finally, can you give your overall impressions of the Class of 2013?
Well, I don't know any coach who doesn't think right now that he didn't recruit the number one class in the country. With that said, overall I'm very pleased. I think we helped ourselves in the offensive and defensive lines. Especially those defensive linemen, because we have less experience than the offensive line, they may help us there. Matt Landry and Caraun Reid both had very good high school seasons and might be able to help us there. We're pretty experienced at linebacker, but I do think we have some good ones coming in, and I'm really pleased about a couple of the secondary guys we have coming in. Again, we have some experience there, but those guys might help us on special teams. We have a very good kicker in Andrew Bierschenk coming in and a very good punter in Joe Cloud coming in. We have a long snapper in Jason Tiemeier coming in who might have the opportunity that Ryan Pritchard had four years ago; with Pritchard graduating, he could come in and help us. At the quarterback position, we'll see how they pan out. We're pleased with Tim Dondanville and Stuart Ahlum, and we'll see how they develop in the system. Running back wise, with Sean Conrad, Akil Sharp and a fullback in Joe Riposta coming in, they all have a chance to help us in some capacity. A position I think we really did well is the tight end position. We have Mark Hayes coming in from Tulsa, Zack Glatter from Virginia, and both have a chance to help us in some capacity if they can learn the system and come in in great shape. Overall, I'm very pleased with the group.
Trench Talk - Episode 5: Jaden Wedderburn
Thursday, November 20
Beyond the Stripes: Torian Roberts
Wednesday, November 19
Trench Talk - Episode 4: London Robinson
Tuesday, October 28
Trench Talk - Episode 3: Joe Harris
Thursday, October 16