Even the sun dipping behind the west side of Hancock Stadium along with a brisk April wind couldnt cool the enthusiastic Illinois State football team as it worked out on the stadium turf Thursday to open the 2004 spring camp.
The Redbirds opened the first of 15 spring workouts by practicing in shorts for nearly two-and-a-half hours. Head coach Denver Johnson was pleased with the level of energy that his football team brought to practice.
There was a lot of chatter and a lot of enthusiasm today, Johnson said. The guys were feeling pretty spunky and it was a great start (to this camp). The attitude, spirit and disposition of the team is exactly where you want it to be. Its just great to be out here with guys that are anxious to make this a better football team.
One group leading the charge to improve the Redbird football team in 2004 is the offensive line. The Birds return four experienced starters up front in Stafford Davis, Jeremy Melville, Matt Pezdek and Mike Stegeman. This quartet has compiled 102 starting assignments between them and Johnson is grateful that a few more are on the horizon.
We are beginning to build some depth there which we havent had, which is encouraging when you are coming off of being the No. 1 offense in the Gateway Football Conference last season, Johnson said. But we will have to replace our quarterback, our leading rusher and our leading receiver. The comforting side is that we have some experience and some quality of depth up front. We are going hang our hat on these guys this year and they are going to be the heart and soul of our offensive football team.
Juniors Davis and Stegeman have controlled the left side of the line for two seasons. This tandem has started every game after their redshirt year. But the most experienced player on the line is Melville, the senior center. Next to the pair of juniors, Melville is easily the most overlooked, but hes arguably the best the Redbirds have up front.
Jeremy Melville is an excellent football player, Johnson said. By nature, hes not a loud, demonstrative guy. He just plays well. Sometimes its pretty good for an offensive lineman to go unnoticed because you always notice them when theyre bad. Hes just steady in there and you always know youre going to get great play out of him.
Melville has made 31 straight starts for the Redbirds and led the team with an 88 percent blocking grade last season. He also had 101 knockdowns, while playing 886 snaps with only one missed assignment.
Its really great to have a guy that has that kind of tenure on the offensive line, Johnson said. Certainly we want to get a lot out of him this year, because we are going to miss him when hes gone. He just does his job real well and the guys on either side of him know that they can count on Jeremy.
The Redbirds return to the field on Friday for their second workout of camp. Practice begins at 3:30 p.m.
