March 20, 2008

Football Starts Spring Practice March 24th

Lopers Solid in the Weight Room this Winter

     Kearney, Neb. –  After months of conditioning, the Nebraska-Kearney football team is ready to take the field and prepare for the 2008 season.

      The Lopers will begin spring practice -- weather permitting -- this coming Monday (March 24^th). UNK's practice days this spring will be Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday with Wed. and Thurs. as make up days.

      As in previous years, there will be no spring game.

      Impressive strength numbers were turned in by several players during the winter conditioning period. Sophomore offensive tackle Orion Matthies (6-7, 340 lbs.), an Overton High graduate, squatted a team-best 573 lbs. while also benching 364 lbs. and having a top hang clean of 370 lbs.

      Redshirt freshman running back Derrick Grant (Goodwell, Okla.) might be just 5-7 and 170 lbs. but he had the team's top strength index at 6.18. Grant squatted 501 lbs., cleaned 293 lbs. and benched 290 lbs.

      Finally, defensive ends Nate Reicks (McCook) and Mason Brodine (Elm Creek) each cleaned a team-best 380 lbs. while linebacker Micah Madlock (Lincoln & San Diego Mesa College) led the way in the bench press at 386 lbs.

      Head coach Darrell Morris will have six returning starters on each side of the ball in 2008. Offensively, the entire line returns and is led by two-time first-team All-RMAC center Jack Hiett (Arvada, Colo.).

      UNK will also get a boost up front as sophomore Eric Paicurich (Westminster, Colo.) returns after missing all of 2007 with injury. The guard/tackle started the second half of the 2006 season.

      At receiver, the Lopers need to replace departed seniors Tyler McNitt and Cory Sleeth. Junior college transfer Tyrone Hilton (Miami, Fla.) was impressive as a redshirt in the fall with Brandon Dondlinger (Waverly) expected to replace McNitt in the H-back role.

      A transfer from South Dakota, Dondlinger played for UNK last fall but was slowed by injury.

      Two-year starter Jake Richards is gone at running back by sophomore Brendan Liess (McCook) logged serious minutes there last year. UNK will be very young in the back field as there is no senior or junior backs on the roster.

      Finally, at quarterback, UNK will have a new signal caller for the fifth straight year. A five way battle to replace Dennis Havrilla includes senior Justin Arellano (Kearney H.S.), sophomore Jake Altmaier (Kearney Catholic) and redshirt freshmen Bobby Adamson (Byers, Colo.), Justin Barry (Wahoo) and Jake Spitzlberger (Lakewood, Colo.).

      Both Arellano and Altmaier played some last year backing up Havrilla. In 2006, Spitzlberger (Class 5A) and Adamson (Class 1A) led their respective classes in passing yards while Barry is left handed quarterback.

      Defensively, UNK will have to replace tackle Zach Cerise and All-RMAC linebackers Kirk Peterson and Nick Oberle. Like the offense, a key player returns from a medical redshirt as safety Jake Mandelko (Lexington) will hit the field Monday after a back ailment sidelined him in 2007. 

      Nearly all of UNK's 2008 seniors will be on defense and those leading the unit include Reicks, linemen Jonathon Cannon (Killeen, Texas), linebackers Cheikh Fall (Boys Town), Brian Malicky (Columbus), Charlie Rudeen (Overton) and Matt Salmons (Ventura, Calif.) and safety/corner Dusty Loeffelholz (Amherst).