Coming off of the fourth winning season in the last five years, head coach Denver Johnson and the Illinois State football team will start working for the 2003 season on Thursday at Hancock Stadium, at 3:30 p.m., for the first of 15 spring practices.
The Redbirds return 36 letterwinners from last seasons team that finished 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the Gateway Football Conference. Eight starters return on offense eith five on the defensive, including the nations leading tackler and reigning GFC Defensive Player of the Year, Boomer Grigsby.
Due to the changes in the coaching staff one focus of Johnsons will be the new responsibilities.
Were dealing with a coaching change heading into spring practice and Ron (Lambert) has been named the interim defensive coordinator, Johnson said. In addition to the that, we have moved Jon Shields back on the defensive side to coach what we call the triangle positions - the rover and whip linebackers and the free safeties. Galen (Scott) has moved to coach the inside linebackers.
With those changes, one of our points of focus this spring will be to get our defense up and running as a staff.
Offensive coordinator Scott Preston will add the wide receivers to his list of responsibilities to accommodate the change by Shields. In addition to coaching responsibilities, Johnson would like to focus on the mental aspects of the game this spring, along with techniques and fundamentals.
I really think that we have a lot of talent on this team, but I would like to focus more on the teaching and understanding of our schemes this spring, Johnson said. We will be stressing fundamentals and focus on broadening our understanding.
We are also looking forward to evaluating the mid-year transfers and to see where they are going to fit in.
Thursday will be the first of four-straight days of practice for the Birds.
