Spring Football Practice Begins Wednesday

3/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football

DENTON, Texas - Spring is here and that means spring football practice is too. North Texas opens up its second spring football season under head coach Dan McCarney Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. It will be the first practice of 15 in the spring season and all practices and scrimmages are open the public.

North Texas is entering the spring season with momentum, having won three of its final five games of the 2011 season and experience returning on both sides of the ball.

On offense North Texas returns nine starters from last season, led by junior quarterback Derek Thompson. He passed for 1,759 yards in 2011, the fifth most in a single season since 1995, and set a new single game record by completing 82 percent of his passes to lead North Texas to its first win ever at Troy.

He will be protected by a very experienced offensive line as North Texas returns four of its five starters from last season, led by all-conference selection Cyril Lemon. He was the only true freshman in the league to be on one of the three all-conference teams in the Sun Belt. He was the first freshman offensive lineman earn all-conference honors at North Texas since 2000.

North Texas has all three starting wide receivers back and three of the four leading receivers returning. The Mean Green does have to find a replacement for all-time leading rusher Lance Dunbar, who ended his career by setting the all-time rushing record in a single game with 313 against Middle Tennessee.

Junior Brandin Byrd and redshirt freshman Zac Whitfield will get the first opportunities to fill the void left by Dunbar in the backfield.

Defensively North Texas returns six starters from last year for new defensive coordinator John Skladany to work with. Lineman Brandon McCoy, Tevinn Cantly, and Ryan Boutwell are all back, along with linebackers Michael Stojkovic, Zachary Orr, Will Wright, and Jeremy Phillips. The Mean Green had 27 sacks last season, the most in a single season since 2002.

The biggest loss comes in the secondary, where cornerback Freddie Warner returns, but North Texas will look to replace both safeties and find another cornerback.

Ray Guy Candidate and all-conference punter Will Atterberry heads into his senior season while junior Zach Olen will handle the placekicking duties. Atterberry led the Sun Belt Conference in punting last year at 43.5 yards a kick and was eighth in the nation with 26 punts inside the 20-yard line.

Spring practice continues through April and there will be two scrimmages held, April 7 and April 14 at 9 a.m. at Apogee Stadium. Spring practice will culminate on April 21 with Spring game held at Apogee Stadium at 2 p.m.

Spring Schedule
March 28- 3:30 p.m.
March 30- 6:00 a.m.
March 31- 9:00 a.m.
April 2- 3:30 p.m.
April 4- 3:30 p.m.
April 6- 6:00 a.m.
April 7- 9:00 a.m.
April 9- 3:30 p.m.
April 11- 3:30 p.m.
April 13- 6:00 a.m.
April 14- 9:00 a.m.
April 16- 3:30 p.m.
April 18- 3:30 p.m.
April 20- TBA
April 21- 2:00 p.m.
*Dates and time subject to change*