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Competition for open spots highlights spring practice

Published Wednesday, May 20, 2009 2:34 PM

By Rob Gantt
The Gazette

Goose Creek middle linebackers Malcom Howard and Dontavia Reid peered across the line at the Gators offense during spring practice last week and one of their first thoughts was, who are these guys?

While Goose Creek’s leading tacklers return in Howard and Reid, the Gators were slapped hard by graduation on offense. They lose three-year starter Donta Brown at quarterback, three interior offensive linemen and leading rusher William Alston.

“(Spring practice) is all about learning, about looking to see if we have football players that can help us next year,” said Howard, who finished with 143 total tackles last season.

“We’re just looking for some leaders,” Reid said.

For the offense, the hunt for starters figures to produce intriguing entertainment that will run completely into the 11th hour the night before the season opener against Northwestern.

Brown won 26 games at quarterback the last three seasons and Alston ran for nearly 1,200 yards last fall. The returning skill players – wide receiver Kevin Glears and running backs Ranoy Hines and Virgil Smalls – have a new player distributing the ball.

Sophomores Jaquan Marsh and Zack Lavery will battle it out for the quarterback job and there won’t be a clear-cut frontrunner exiting spring practice.

Marsh, in the mold of Brown, started on JV last season and got the backup snaps on varsity but Lavery has had an impressive spring and throws a pretty ball.

“We’ll see what happens during the summer,” said Goose Creek coach Chuck Reedy, whose team went 9-4 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2008. “We’ve got a long ways to go. They’re very even.”

And only center Dennis Large returns along an offensive line that pushed around most opponents when it wanted to last season. The Gators lost both tight ends, too.

“We’ve got a bunch of young bucks up there,” Large said.

But there is an upside to the group contending for those open spots up front.

“We’ve got a lot of good possibilities,” offensive line coach Steve Gabriel said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys in the long run that will be very good offensive linemen here. We will be a little smaller but this will be the quickest group we’ve had, and one of the strongest we’ve had eventually.”

Glears had 40 catches for 527 yards and seven touchdowns in 2008, while Hines and Smalls combined for over 1,100 yards and scored 10 touchdowns each. Hines is backing up from fullback to play tailback.

“I think we’ll be all right,” Hines said. “We just have to come together a lot more. Everybody just needs to make improvement.”

Rising freshman Mike Myers and Jerome Jordan are solid backups in the backfield.

Jamel Bowman and rising freshman Tramel Terry, a speedster, are some other receivers for the Gators.

“If our offense is able to produce against our defense, we’ll be able to produce against anybody in the state,” Large said.

In addition to Howard and Reid, the Gators bring back Albert Kirk in the secondary. Kirk, who may get some offensive reps in the slot this fall, made six interceptions and broke up 14 passes. LC McCloud is moving from cornerback to free safety.

Troy Dicks and Jawon Foreman are the top two players on the spring depth chart at the other corner spot.

Defensive linemen Shawn Williams, Josh Jenkins and Antonio Jackson are also returning starters in the front eight. Terrell Rowland also played up front some last fall.

The competition for the two outside linebacker spots will be as interesting as the one at quarterback. The candidates are Rae Robinson, T.J. Burrell, Patrick James and Darius Daniels.

“All of them can hit so it’s going to be a hard decision,” Howard said. “We should have a good rotation.”

Expectations are high for the defensive unit. Dominant is one adjective that comes to mind for the Gators on that side of the ball.

“We’ve got eight of our 11 back, and the majority of us are seniors,” Kirk said. “We’re already region champs. The next step is state. We’re going to have to pick it up and everybody has to get better.”

Spring practice ends this week for the Gators.

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