Herd Set To Open Spring Drills

3/10/2002

The Marshall Thundering Herd football squad will open spring practice on Monday morning, March 11, at 6:30 a.m. at Marshall Stadium.

The Herd, coming off an 11-2 campaign in 2001 and a thrilling double overtime victory over East Carolina in the GMAC Bowl, returns nine starters on offense and six on defense for the 2002 season.

In addition to the return of virtually the entire offense, which set a Mid-American Conference record last year by averaging 505.0 yards of total offense per game, the Herd returns a total of 50 players who earned letters last fall.

"Even though we have a lot of guys back on offense, there are still things we hope to improve on this spring," Herd coach Bob Pruett said. "We need to develop some depth in the offensive line, we have to solidify the backup quarterback spot and some of our young wide recivers need to step up to give us more depth there."

Defensively, the Herd has to replace five starters lost to graduation, but has 23 returning letterwinners to work into those vacancies.

"We have got to be able to handle the run better defensively," Pruett said. "We played a lot of young kids last year on defense, and those guys have to step up to be men now. It is their time."

Practice during spring drills is scheduled to be held early in the morning except for a couple of days. The team is scheduled to practice on March 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27 and 28 prior to spring break. Drills will continue after spring break on April 9, 10 and 12.

The annual Green-White spring game is scheduled for Saturday, April 13, at 7 p.m. at Marshall University Stadium. Practice on March 23 is slated to be held at South Charleston High School.