The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference will welcome four new schools next year, expanding conference membership from 10 to 14. Several Winona State University teams will begin their respective seasons as the team to beat in the new-look NSIC.
One such target will fall squarely on the back of the WSU football team.
The Warriors rolled through the NSIC 9-0 last season. Highlights included a revenge defeat of Bemidji State and a FOX Sports Net North beatdown of Concordia-St. Paul. In the end, the Warriors went out a top-20, Division II playoff team, though several pieces of that team were in the last year of their eligibility.
The buzz word around recent spring practices, which concluded last Saturday with the annual WSU football spring game, was “new era.” In terms of rebuilding versus reloading, the Warriors appear to have opted for the latter.
“We grew a lot as a football team,” WSU coach Tom Sawyer said after the spring game. “We really started to understand our personality and those types of things.”
The culmination of the spring session — Purple beat White 17-7 in the intrasquad spring game — ended the first installment of a long series of position battles and evaluations that should pick up when practice resumes in August.
WSU’s major position battles will take place on the offensive side of the ball, where the team graduated an all-conference quarterback, running back and wide receiver.
Redshirt freshman Amir Ross has seniority within the Warriors’ system, but Division IAA transfer Greg Preston from Tennessee-Martin looked polished and certainly didn’t close any doors this spring.
WSU’s backfield is crowded with talent, and could evolve into a committee of sorts next season.
Juniors Carey Rottman and Randy Spring are known commodities and have carved roles for themselves in the offense.
Sophomore Darren Davis and transfer Curtis Dewberry should also figure heavy into the Warriors’ ground game. Davis gives WSU a between-the-tackles bruiser. Dewberry is an electric talent who already has some, including Sawyer, drawing comparisons to two-time Harlon Hill Award finalist and former WSU All-American running back Kevin Curtin.
“I’m just out here trying to learn the plays and get more comfortable with the guys,” said Dewberry, who scored a rushing touchdown for the Purple in the spring game and returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown for the White.
Junior wide receiver Tyree Burks has all the tools to dominate any competition WSU faces next season. But after Burks, with the graduation of record-breaking pass catcher Scott Peters, the rest is significantly less clear.
The offensive line should anchor the team. Sawyer raved about the unit all spring. Led by all-NSIC tackle Nick Urban and center Seth Haun, it has starting-caliber talent as far as 12-deep, according to Sawyer.
Offensive position battles should wage into early fall as no clear-cut winners or losers came out of spring practices.
“Until we sit down and evaluate where people are, I didn’t see anybody really stand out as far as a ‘wow’ factor,” Sawyer said. “But they competed and that’s what I was looking for. So nobody took a back seat.”
WSU’s defense was a surprise standout at the spring game.
Freshman linebackers Jake Harmon and Ryan Jirgl showed up all spring as impact players. Jirgl intercepted two passes in the spring game, and Harmon displayed a nose for the ball.
“It was a great growing period for us,” Jirgl said. “We’ll take this, we’ll get healthy and we’ll get rested over the summer. But we have a lot of work to do.”
Veterans such as linebackers Brent Yule and Jared Stahlecker, safety Tyler Perkette, cornerback Tony Hill, and linemen Ryan Rothwell, Chauncey Charlson and Michael Henderson will provide WSU defense with an experienced leadership core.