With the Illinois State fall football camp starting on Saturday, it is the first opportunity for head coach Denver Johnson to start filling the void left by the graduation of Sha-Ron Edwards, the Gateway Football Conferences leading rusher, Dwayne Smith, the leagues top receiver, and Mike Souza, the teams leading passer.
When you lose your starting quarterback, the leading rusher in the conference and the leading receiver in the conference there is plenty to concentrate on with the offensive side of the ball, Johnson said. So we will focus our attention on developing people and filling those spots.
The Redbirds are coming off a 6-6 mark last season and have been picked fifth the leagues preseason poll. Johnson is well aware of how challenging the Gateway Conference can be, but is still positive about the Redbirds outlook. In fact in the last two seasons, the team that was picked to finish fifth has gone on to the win the league title.
Im excited about camp, Johnson said. Weve had a good bunch of guys around all summer and Im excited about the new guys coming in. Im anxious to get the team integrated, while getting on the practice field and moving forward toward the opener. Im really excited about this football team. I think there is a lot of potential here with great leadership and an influx of young talent.
The Redbirds return 44 lettermen, including seven starters on each side of the ball. One of the starters defensively is two-time conference defensive player of the year and consensus all-America Boomer Grigsby. With Grigsby as the foundation of the defense, Johnson sees a lot of potential around his fifth-year senior.
Defensively, of course, Boomer is the cornerstone to all of it, Johnson added. We have more quality depth in the defensive line than we have ever had and I look for them to be a more solid group. Im anxious to see how the triangle guys come out. We have a few questions over there, but I think we have better candidates than we have had in some time.
The first practice will take place on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The initial workout is the first of 16 straight days of practice. Per NCAA rules, the Redbirds first five days of camp will be single-session workouts. After the first five practices, the Birds will alternate between two workouts a day and one the following day.
