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UNT starts spring drills first
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Posted on Fri, Feb. 11, 2005


NORTH TEXAS INSIDER

Spring arrives early as rebuilding begins

By Jeff Wilson

Star-Telegram Staff Writer


DENTON - Football season ended for most fans on Super Bowl Sunday, and for diehards on Pro Bowl Sunday. But there's no football outage at North Texas.

The Mean Green will open spring practices Monday, the earliest start for any program in the country. Coach Darrell Dickey said UNT's drills are also the toughest, and the potential for winter weather plays a role in that.

Dickey said he uses the 15 practice dates, which include the March 10 spring game, to learn "who our football players are." He and his coaching staff are looking for players to prove their toughness and willingness to play when they are tired, sore and cold.

"I hope we have a couple of days when it's freezing cold," Dickey said. "We find out who's more concerned about playing football than the weather."

Lightning, the coach said, is the only element that will keep the Mean Green out of practices, which have more importance this year as UNT looks to replace 13 starters from the 2004 team that went 7-5 and won its fourth consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.

"When we ask our players which positions are up for grabs, they say, 'All of them,' " said Dickey, 37-46 in seven seasons. "They know we start over every season, and what they did the year before doesn't matter."

UNT has an immediate opening at quarterback, where Joey Byerly will enter drills atop the depth chart. Three starters on the line and another at tight end also won't return on an offense that rushed for a conference-best 186.4 yards per game last season.

On defense, four new starters are needed on the line and three are needed in the secondary. Dickey said he hopes to find productivity in each spot, rather than just one or two impact players.

"We need to find guys who can play winning football for us," he said. "We want to be able to roll eight or nine guys on the defensive line, and right now we don't know who those guys are."

Even the positives are troubling the staff. Dickey said the receiver corps might be the best UNT has had, and spreading the ball to each receiver won't be easy. The Mean Green also has the past two NCAA Division I-A rushing champions returning, Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas.

The Cobbs/Thomas "quandary" is twofold: finding ways to play both at the same time and helping Cobbs regain confidence in his rehabilitated left knee, which he sprained early last season.

"We don't want his first contact to be in Baton Rouge, La.," Dickey said, noting the Mean Green's Sept. 3 season opener against LSU. "We want to get him to the point where he can play without thinking about it [the injury]."

Dickey said he could hold spring practices in late March or early April, but the February start gives UNT advantages. Dickey said players can give more attention to their schoolwork, can heal fully for the start of two-a-day drills in August, and have more time to be normal college kids.

"We take so much of these kids' time; we want them to be college students," he said. "We want them to go to the lake on spring break just like everyone else."

Even if that means holding "spring" drills in February.
02-11-2005 10:59 AM
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