So it's not often during this year that I wake up at 6:50 a.m. I don't have a class until 10:30 on Tuesdays, so why on earth would I be getting up that early?
Spring football practice. It's the first one (open to the public) this year, and I was excited to get out there and see what coach Jason Swepson had in store for the team on day 1.
The first thing I noticed was a couple of guys out of uniform. One was rising sophomore quarterback Tyler Smith, who transferred from the University of Maryland last season to try to take the open quarterback spot last year but lost out to current rising senior Thomas Wilson. He and Southern Conference All-Freshman Team member (by the coaches) rising sophomore offensive lineman Austin Sowell were both wearing maroon hoodies, watching their teammates do drills.
A couple of interesting positions races to watch this season will be linebacker and running back.
With seniors Joshua Jones and Zach Henderson graduating at the linebacker position, new linebackers coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will have his hands full with the group. On what looked like the first-string linebacking corps, simply because of who was out there, rising sophomores Odell Benton and Jonathan Spain and rising senior Blake Thompson were taking reps. Those are the guys I would expect to see out there. Spain was All-Freshman SoCon with Sowell, while Benton played well in the last few games of last season. Thompson looked like a leader, leading the entire team in some jumping jacks at the end of a stretching session.
The running back position will also be up for grabs this fall. Unfortunately, three of the front runners for the position were not out there. Rising freshmen Tracey Coppedge and B.J. Bennett were absent (they'll be here in the fall), and I didn't see rising redshirt freshman Joe Jones (whom Swepson is very high on). Rising senior tight end Matt Eastman took snaps at the running back position in positioning and snapping drills as well as rising sophomore Austin Donnald.
Wilson was taking top snaps at the quarterback position, while rising sophomore Mike Quinn was second. I was impressed by the throwing motion of rising sophomore Adam LaFleur. With rising freshman John Loughery (somebody Swepson is also high on) coming in this fall, the #3 quarterback spot is sort of a fight, with Smith and rising redshirt freshman Blake Rice. Four guys battling for one relatively insignificant spot.
Another fun part, I'm discovering, of spring practice is the guys who have a number but no name on the roster. Among the numbers I saw without names on the current ElonPhoenix.com roster were 13, 80, 82 and 87. I'll see what I can do to find out who those people are. I wanted to find rising freshman Doug Warrick, who is already here and enrolled for the spring, but don't know his number. I bet you one of those numbers belong to him.
Hope you guys enjoyed the peak at spring practice! It was a chilly one, but I hope to be out there this Thursday at 7:35 a.m. again, and let you guys know if anything fun happens.
UPDATE 1: Check out quotes from coach Swepson here at ElonPhoenix.com. He touches on the running back and tight end and offensive line position battles.
UPDATE 2: According to The Times-News' Bob Sutton, Smith was held out with shin ailments that will likely keep him out for on-field workouts for the entire spring season. Sutton also reported that rising fifth-year senior linebacker/safety Dale Riley will forego his last season of eligibility and graduate this year.