University of South Dakota Athletics

Wednesday's practice out on the turf was the fifth for South Dakota's football team, which means the spring season is already one-third of the way through. Like most Bob Nielson-coached springs, the first practices are devoted to installing new wrinkles within the offensive and defensive schemes. The next phase includes reviewing and refining those schemes while working in some situational drills.
 
"We have a few more days devoted primarily to installation, and then next week we will do more third down and short yardage situations which require different types of schemes on both sides of the football," said Nielson. "I think our guys are gaining confidence every day in what we're doing, especially defensively, and we can see that more definitively now."
 
With a new defensive coordinator in Travis Johansen at the helm, Nielson acknowledged that not everything can fit into a four-week frame.
 
"We don't expect to get everything in defensively," said Nielson. "With 15 practices, that's not going to happen. What's most important is we get our base things in and then our players gain confidence in those before we start adding to the package."
 
In addition to third down and short yardage, Nielson expects to focus heavily on red zone play in upcoming practices. It's an area the Coyotes weren't as good offensively a season ago. Defensively, of course, he would like to force teams to settle for more field goal attempts.
 
"We want to be more consistent," said Nielson. "Offensively, we had games or in some cases halves where we didn't move the football very effectively. Developing consistency is something that we're trying to do and on both sides of the ball."
 
One position group in the spotlight this week is the offensive line. It is a unit that has seen some of the biggest gains in terms of strength and conditioning according to Nielson. And where most of the personnel at the skill positions return on offense, the Coyotes graduated a pair of veteran tackles in Nick Jensen and Cody Jennings.
 
"It's a group that we need some young guys to step forward," said Nielson. "I'm trying to devote more of my time to help develop those young guys like Isaac Erbes, Kian Rexroat-Potts, Trevor Shohoney and Spencer Gavin, some who were in that redshirt group a year ago. Other younger players like Austin Wallace and Braden Schneider, who played a fair amount as redshirt freshmen. You are probably going to see a couple of those guys who are going to be playing a lot and maybe even in the starting lineup.
 
"Teams in our league are dominated by juniors and seniors at that position and that's not the case for our football team right now. We have some catching up to do and we are gaining some ground. We have to have another really good summer in the weight room and gain a little bit more."
 
Practice six is set for Friday at 3:30 p.m.