The dust has now settled on our 2007 spring practice session. As I said before the focus was mainly on skill development with the players that we had at practice. Many of the questions that we have heading into next season didn’t come much closer to being answered because of some key players participation in spring sports. We will be able to get those guys back in June as we begin our passing practices and individual linemen practices.

We will be very thin on the offensive line next year and we got key improvements from those players in the spring. I felt like we had some people step up that now can provide us solid depth there.

We, also, saw some surprises on the defensive line where we should have plenty of depth. That is one of the most positive things coming out of our spring session.

We have much work to do at the WR positions. We do have some individuals that will be able to provide solid play at those spots. However, each of those players has a deficiency that is keeping them from being consistent as we saw this spring. Whether it be catching the ball, creating separation, stalk blocking, etc. there is much to work in June (and July), at that position. The bulk of the playing time at WR and TE is totally up for grabs right now.

The DE and LB spots are positions where we won’t have a great deal of depth, but we should have a solid 3 at each spot. I say we “should” have because there is one player at each position that is kind of a question mark right now in terms of consistency. Hopefully, that will work itself out easily. If not, some personell may have to be shifted from other spots.

One of our biggest question marks is in the defensive backfield. We could go a lot of directions here with personnel, but there will be major battles for playing time at these positions in June and July.

The biggest question on offense is our backfield. We are in dire need of a tailback and there will be somewhat of a QB competition this summer. It will work itself out as most all of the participants fighting for the QB job will play somewhere, whether it is at QB or not. That is good to know as it won’t be a divisive competition.

So, we got a lot out of our spring session and it set the stage for what we must focus on this summer. June will be filled with linemen practices focusing on technique for those guys. The skill kids must focus on learning and executing our coverages and our passing game. It will be a very important month to limit some of our teaching and learning in July. This will be especially important as we will have a very young team again. Learning to trust and be confident in the things we do will be key to our success coming out of June.

Before that point, we will get back in the weightroom and continue working on strength, speed, and agility. In May we will have our annual Iron Lion competition and I will surely report on that and let you know how our kids finished up in the weightroom. Enjoy Final Four weekend, the start of baseball season (Go Cubs!), spring break, and/or whatever else the first of April brings your way.