Spring is Springing

Spring football begins just three weeks from today.

The official CU website published the schedule for spring practices yesterday, including the date of the annual spring game which is April 16th at 4:30 pm.

It's also overdue for me to link to Head Coach Al Bagnoli's short video previewing the 2016 season. Bagnoli made a point of how many of the key units on the team are untouched by graduation, including the entire starting linebacker corps and most of the offense. And he also makes the fundraising pitch for the all-important inflatable bubble Columbia hopes to soon have in place over Wien Stadium for the colder months.

This is a good time to remind everyone that while we're all excited about many of the incoming freshmen and even interested in some of the class of 2017 players we're recruiting, the big focus should be on the veteran players Columbia needs to step up starting with this spring practice session.

One of the rising RB's needs to step up to help replace Cameron Molina. 2-3 players need to step up to replace the many graduation losses on the defensive line. And the returning wide receivers need to step up too.

Here are some names I'll be watching a little more closely than the others:

RB

Alan Watson, Leander Cutler, and Chris Schroer

Watson is the heir apparent to Molina as the starting RB, but Schroer should get a good look too. Cutler is a FB, but he might get some carries here and there as he tries to come back from an ACL tear.

WR

Cameron Dunn and Scooter Hollis had their moments in 2015, but this is a unit that really, really, really needs to get better and find a go-to guy as soon as possible. Both of them will be back in 2016 and that helps a lot. But a new step up guy could be Marcus Briscoe, a rising junior who missed 2015 due to injury. Rising soph Brandon Krcilek got a lot of playing time as a frosh in 2015 and let's see if he can step it up as well.

TE

With both Nick Durham and Hank Trumbull gone to graduation, which one of the remaining TE's will step up? Rising senior John Hunton is probably the odds-on choice. But if 6-6 rising sophomore Adam Armesto has what it takes, this spring would be a good time to start showing it.

OFFENSIVE LINE

With only one real graduation loss on this unit, things are looking up for this once disaster area group. But the return of the injured Charlie Flores has me intrigued and I hope he is cleared to practice this spring.

DEFENSIVE LINE

I'm not the only one who thinks rising junior Lord Hyeamang is destined to be a star. This is the time to make a big step toward achieving that goal. Fellow rising junior Dominic Perkovic also could make a big move after some great flashes last season.

LINEBACKERS

Some of the coaches believe Columbia's great D-line stats and reputation in 2015 was largely made possible by the linebacking unit. That's good news because not only are all the LB starters back, but so are some the players who missed a good deal of the year with injuries. Key among them is rising junior Hagen Patterson, who got the nod as a starter before hurting himself in the opener against Fordham and limping through much of the rest of the season. If Patterson shows himself to be at 100% this spring, Columbia can make a case for having the best linebacking talent in the Ivies.

SECONDARY

Most of this unit comes back too, but replacing Travis Reim is a priority. I believe Brandon Blackshear is coming back for another season, and I will be watching to see if he competes for the open starting slot.

KICKING GAME

All the specialists are back, so I don't expect to see any new names emerge from this group in the spring. The big push comes in the summer, when incoming frosh placekicker Oren Milstein might shakes things up quite a bit.