Published: March 17, 2007 02:05 pm            

A New Era Begins

Wright regime’s first practice scheduled for Monday

San Marcos — Spring football practice can fool people. Players that haven’t sniffed glory can suddenly stand out. A team can look comfortable in a new scheme. Or a squad can look particularly deep (or particularly thin) at a certain position.

The ending of each football season’s chapter isn’t completed in the next two weeks, nor can it be accurately predicted because everything changes by fall.

But the plot certainly thickens in spring.

Then again, Texas State’s program’s has already been through some twists this calender year when former head coach David Bailiff accepted the same position at Rice University. Brad Wright was subsequently tabbed as Bailiff’s replacement after the former head coach and a number of boosters stepped forward in support of the hire.

Wright’s hiring kicked off a mad scramble as Bailiff and his former assistant head coach split up the former Texas State staff and hired replacements. Now, that staff will take the field at Texas State for the first time Monday at 4 p.m. — with a lot of questions to answer.



1. How will the new staff work together and define their roles?

Under Bailiff, practices ran smoothly and efficiently, and with Wright at the helm, there won’t be much change. Wright is a no-nonsense style coach when it comes to getting to work and he’ll likely have the Bobcats’ practices fine-tuned by the end of the spring session.

His assistants though will have a more complicated task.

Wright handed out a lot of titles when putting together his staff. There are co-coordinators on both sides of the ball, an associate head coach and an assistant head coach. Travis Bush, a holdover from Bailiff’s staff, is the associate head coach, co-offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach. Ben Norton is also a co-offensive coordinator in addition to being the assistant head coach and the offensive line position coach.

It’ll take some time to define the coaches’ roles, particularly with the wealth of titles that have been handed out.



2. How will the Bobcats handle the multiple scheme changes?

Two things are certain. Brad Wright will change the defense and the offense.

Just how fundamental those changes will be remains to be seen.

Wright pledged to allocate more safety help on defense to help prevent the big play. What that’ll mean for the other defensive positions isn’t clear, but it may a require a more aggressive pass rush from the front seven. There is also apparently a hybrid spot which will share some similar responsibilities with what was formerly known as the KAT position. The spot might best be described as a rover or monster back, but the exact nature of the position is unclear. The use of the deep safety will likely define this spot’s actions.

On offense, Wright said at his opening press conference that the Bobcats will get more authoritative in the running game. He didn’t say that Texas State would run the ball more (why would he with hard-throwing 6-foot-6 Bradley George at the helm?) but that they’d be more hard-nosed. That will likely mean an expanded role for road paver/fullback Blake Burton, particularly if George ends up under center more often than he did last year as would happen in the I-formation sets that the Bobcats are rumoured to be tinkering with.

Spring practice will go a long way towards installing those new wrinkles and getting the Bobcats up to speed.



3. How big of a loss is Chase Wasson’s departure?

Wasson, who had been anointed by some as the face of the program early last season, seems set on departing for graduate school and the affair has become a bit of a “he said, she said” mess between Wright (who hasn’t commented much) and his now apparently former player.

In the end though, Wasson’s departure might not be too significant. While Wasson was certainly a valuable receiver and opened up a number of trick play opportunities, Wasson leaving could mean more opportunities for the equally shifty Morris Crosby to shine. Crosby is one of Bobcats’ most dangerous weapons, and he should get the bulk of the time that Wasson’s departure will free up. The pair was almost a 1A, 1B situation at the slot last season.

And George won’t hurt for targets either. He’ll have youngsters DeMarcus Griggs and Alex Darley in addition to senior Tyrone Scott. Andre McCorkle, though, according to the spring roster, has also left the program.

The bigger question mark that Wasson leaving seems to open up is who will backup George. David Ramirez, a Purdue transfer, has also left the program, leaving two new arrivals to battle it out for the No. 2 spot. That’s Houston transfer Clint Walraven and Southern Methodist transfer Eric Johnson.



4. With a heavy senior loss in the linebacking corps and the secondary, who will step in to lead on defense?

No more Epsilon Williams, no more Walter Musgrove, no more Shola Obafemi and no more Jeremy Castillo. Texas State has to replace a host of seniors on defense, and spring will have to kickstart that process.

At safety, replacing Williams will be a tough task. Michael Rutledge and junior college transfer Ric Palmer (who is transisitioning to the secondary from his spot as a JC linebacker) are among the candidates to step in there. Rutledge played in eight games last season and had 13 tackles.

At corner, Jervoress Crenshaw returns and Washington State transfer Kerry Maddox, sophomore Kenneth Hampton and senior Morgan Taylor will battle for repetitions during spring practice.

The rover spot mentioned earlier could be filled by Palmer or Rutledge as well, but Chase Pulliam, a special teams standout last season, should also be in the mix.

Daniel Varvel will return and is sure to start at free safety for his final season, but he won’t participate in spring drills because of an injury.

The coaching staff will get its first look at Mark Washington as a linebacker. The Arizona State transfer is supposed to begin to make the move from down lineman to a 6-foot-3, 250 pound linebacker during spring practice. He’ll be competing for time as a linebacker with Joe Bell, Courtney Smith and Jamarr Crane. All three saw time last season.

These storylines barely scratch the surface of what should be an intriguing offseason for Texas State. It starts this week, beginning with the team’s first practice Monday at 4 p.m.

        

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