TULSA SPRING FOOTBALL BEGINS TODAY
3/6/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 6, 2012
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team will be on the field today for the first of 15 spring practice sessions. Tulsa will practice seven times before spring break week of March 19-23. The Hurricane will then return to the practice field on Tuesday, March 27 for seven more practice sessions before culminating spring drills with the Annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 7.
"We're excited to get spring drills underway. I think we're better prepared for spring practice this year than a year ago. Last year, it seemed like we were scrambling a little bit with putting together a new staff, finishing out recruiting then getting ready for spring drills. Now, we've been able to have some consistency and carry over," said Blankenship.
"We know our guys and we know each other. We're not spending time learning the offense and defense, now we're spending time actually preparing how to use our guys this spring," added Blankenship. "We're so much more knowledgeable about our players than we were at this time last year."
There will be a number of key position battles this spring to watch. The most talked about will be at quarterback where four scholarship players and four walk-ons are listed to compete for the vacant spot left by the graduation of G.J. Kinne. Three offensive line positions - left tackle, left guard and right tackle - are all open and coaches will be looking to fill those holes as well as develop consistency and depth. The tight end position is also up for grabs,
Defensively, finding a replacement for the 2011 leading tackler, Curnelius Arnick, at middle linebacker and a pass rushing tight end to replace Tyrunn Walker will be the two biggest areas of concern heading into spring drills. The Hurricane coaches will also look to develop depth in the secondary.
Blankenship expects to have a nucleus of younger players that will compete for starting spots and provide quality depth. Tulsa was able to red-shirt 14 true freshmen on scholarship last year and gray-shirt another three players.
"Partly because we were able to red-shirt some people we're going into this spring with more depth than we've had and that should play itself out with really good competition for starting spots," said Blankenship.
"The young red-shirts should be in a great situation. Red-shirting is good for our guys. It's not what most guys want to do, but now they have four years to play in front of them," added Blankenship. "It's a matter of do they want to be four-year players. We've had really exciting off-seasons from many of our freshmen that red-shirted. I think we'll see some exciting players on the field this spring."
Practice sessions are closed.
2012 TULSA SPRING PRACTICE SCHEDULE MARCH 6th (Tuesday), afternoon workout 8th (Thursday), afternoon workout 9th (Friday), afternoon workout 10th (Saturday), morning workout 13th (Tuesday), afternoon workout 14th (Wednesday), morning workout 15th (Thursday), afternoon workoutSPRING BREAK 27th (Tuesday), afternoon workout 29th (Thursday), afternoon workout 30th (Friday), afternoon workout 31st (Saturday), morning workout
APRIL 3rd (Tuesday), afternoon workout 5th (Thursday), afternoon workout 6th (Friday), afternoon workout 7th (Saturday), 1 pm, SPRING GAME
