Thirty-nine letterwinners and seven mid-year transfers will be among the 71 players participating in Illinois States spring football drills, which begin Thursday at 4 p.m., at Hancock Stadium.
The Redbirds will go through a total of 15 workouts, culminating with the Red/White game on Sat., April 28, at 2:30 p.m., at Hancock Stadium.
Spring practice begins the process of finding new faces for several important positions. The coaching staff will have to identify three new starters in the secondary, while also dealing with the graduation losses of all-time tackler Galen Scott at linebacker and all-time leading passer Kevin Glenn at quarterback.
We lost some very good players, but we feel like we had some good younger players and were excited about the newcomers, said second-year head coach Denver Johnson. Well have a fair amount of teaching to do.
Im optimistic about what we can do on defense, but the spring will be important to us. On offense, well have significant competition at several positions. We have more depth and experience on offense so the emphasis on that side of the ball might be more along the lines of fine-tuning.
The Redbird offense includes running back Willie Watts, who rushed for 1,088 yards last season. He was an honorable mention all-American in 2000 and could push for higher honors in 2001.
Dusty Burk, who got the starting nod in five games last season, is the only returning quarterback with starting experience. He ranks No. 11 in ISU history with 2,240 passing yards and No. 4 in career touchdown passes with 21. The Tuscola junior will compete in the spring with junior college transfer Kevin Zouzounis and returnees Eric Delaney and Yance Vaughan.
Dusty comes back as our most experienced player at the position and hes an outstanding quarterback, Johnson said. But even the very good players get better with competition and that is the atmosphere we want this spring. Kevin Zouzounis is an exciting prospect and were also anxious to see the development of Eric Delaney and Yance Vaughan.
ISU returns 17 lettermen and 14 full or part-time starters on offense. On defense, the team has 21 returning lettermen and 10 full or part-time starters.
Last season, the Redbirds were 7-4 overall and 4-2 in the Gateway (second). The team finished the season ranked No. 23 by Football Gazette and No. 24 by The Sports Network in Division I-AA.
