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Andersen had another word ― unique ― for his
intentions.
"We're going to major heavy in youth for two to
three full practices," he said. "It's something I've
never done before. You're going to see very little, if
any, of the starters play in any of the crossover of-
fensive and defensive situations (though) they're
going to get their individual work.
"We've got a ton of position battles taking place
with the second-team kid and the third-team kid
and even down to some third- and fourth-team
kids. They need to get some reps and they need to
get them now and they need to get them early and
they're going to get them (this week).
"We'll evaluate those kids after a few days. I think
our more experienced kids in the program can han-
dle that because we're going to do the best we can
this spring to keep them healthy. It will allow the
young kids to compete. They're going to have their
opportunities, so they'd better shine quickly."
Andersen cited the defensive line and two very
promising first-year players: Chikwe Obasih and
Alec James. "If they only get 10 reps each in prac-
tices one, two and three," he said, "and they walk out
after a week of spring ball with 30 reps, we have not
served them well, nor the program well."
As the head coach, or the offensive and defensive
coordinator, there's always a big picture ideology, an
ends to a means. Here's how it may look on Wednes-
day, the opening of spring drills. But how is it go-
ing to look after 15 practices, including the April 12
spring game at Camp Randall Stadium?
What do they each want to be able to see ― or say
― at the end of the spring?
"That we found a solid two-deep across the board
and we played together as a defense," Aranda said.
"That we're hungry, we're young and we're playing
11 guys together as one unit."
"The biggest thing for me," said Ludwig, "is that I
want to expose the players to as much of the offense
as possible, our core stuff, so they can take it and
have ownership of it."
To this end, Andersen said, "At quarterback, we
want to create competition. We want to walk out of
the spring with our quarterbacks competing, but we
want to be very solidified on the first two."
DAVID
STLUKA
DAVID
STLUKA
