Expectations are high as the team prepares for the spring game and the upcoming fall season. Tuesday, Feb. 26 marked the first day of spring football practice for the Lions Football team.
“I want to come out here knowing that we’re a lot better football team than we were last fall,” said head coach Ron Roberts. “We’ve got to take the next step forward some giant steps forward-as far as competition and depth and creating those battles out here for spots. I want to see us, obviously, execute a lot better, play faster, and we gotta find who’s gonna be the guys that we can depend on.”
Although practice has only been going on for a few days, Roberts feels good about the way things are going.
“The spirit is good,” said Roberts. “The tempo is good. I really like that. I think we’re practicing at a really good tempo. We got a lot of guys back that are returners that know what they’re doing, so there’s not as many mistakes.”
Some of the players are also enjoying the way things are going so far in spring practice.
“It’s one of the finer springs I’ve ever had,” said sophomore linebacker Kaleb Muse. “It’s very up tempo and I see that everybody else around me is having fun also. I have high hopes for us.”
Spring practice is also a time for introducing new players that will be starting next season.
“We’re running 12 guys at the mid-term,” said Roberts. “I expect all 12 to be starting jobs.”
According to some of the players, their new teammates seem to be getting along well.
“They’re really easy to get along with,” said Muse. “We brought a lot of talent in over the spring, so I think they’ll get along good in our system.”
“The new players are cool,” said Rasheed Harrell, freshman running back majoring in general studies. “They’re getting everything, getting all the information they need to get on the field.”
Coming up on March 23 will be the spring football game, where the team will play to show what they have been working on during the spring.
“That’ll be our accumulation of spring and wrapping everything up and just when you want to see guys step out on the stage and perform,” said Roberts. “We want to try and do everything we can to get the student body out here and figure out that it’s not just us watching for next year but the university. This needs to be an event. Not just a game, but it needs to be an event.”