Bulldogs Football Kicks Off Spring Practice

UMD will hold spring practice over the next month, and play in the spring game on April 19.

DULUTH, Minn. – The UMD football team kicked off spring practice on Friday. The Bulldogs will spend the next month out on Malosky Field getting in the reps and drills they’ve been waiting months to do.

“You spend all winter, all the time in the weight room getting ready for this and you kind of get away from football too much, so this. Getting back out here, getting back to the x’s and o’s and the fundamentals and all that stuff of football and that’s what everyone comes here to do and I think all of our guys are pretty excited to do that,” offensive coordinator Chase Vogler said.

“It’s just football. It’s been like six months now since we put on the pads so it’s exciting to be out here, see what we have going on for next season and just to be back out on the field is always good,” wide receiver Johnny McCormick said.

While the first few days are just having the team out there together without pads on, there’s still a lot of work to get done during this early phase, like finding a way to replace the 22 seniors the Bulldogs lost after last season.

“We have some new guys stepping in to some new positions and we obviously lost a great class of seniors, as it goes for talent and leadership as well, but just seeing where everyone’s at, who are leaders are and where this team’s headed going into fall,” McCormick said.

“I think as we start to head into spring practice and see how practice flows and see the underclassmen rise up with an opportunity to lead, I think that’s what spring practice is about. That development of those young guys and the identification of finding out who are older guys can be as far as leaders,” head coach Curt Wiese said.