The University of Akron Athletics
Akron Spring Football Gets Underway
March 18 | Football
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2015 Spring Prospectus
AKRON, Ohio – It's that time of year again– March Madness– and the start of spring football practice at the University of Akron.
Head coach Terry Bowden and the Zips take the field for 15 spring practices, which began on Monday.
While the Zips are known to practice in the mornings throughout the season, they have endured really early morning outings during this first week. The squad is meeting at 5:30 a.m. and hitting the field by 5:45 a.m. until 8:15 a.m. to help five players—engineering students—who have class at 8:30 a.m.
This first week, Akron will practice Monday through Thursday before taking an 11-day break for the University's Spring Break.
Practices are closed to the public.
Spring practices will resume on Tuesday, March 31, culminating with the Zips' annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 18, at 1 p.m. at InfoCision Stadium– Summa Field. Admission and parking to the spring game are FREE.
Akron, which finished the 2014 campaign at 5-7 overall, opens the 2015 season at Oklahoma on Sept. 5. The Zips' home opener is slated for Sept. 12 against Pittsburgh.
New season tickets and season ticket renewals for 2015 are available anytime at GoZips.com/Tickets, or from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Mondays through Fridays by either calling 1-888-99-AKRON (25766) or visiting The C.P. and Cornelia S. Chima Athletics Ticket Office at InfoCision Stadium - Summa Field (located at 375 E. Exchange Street, near Gate 1 at the southwest corner of the venue, at the corner of E. Exchange and S. Union streets). Check out the special incentives for 2015 season tickets.
Special group discounts (for 20+ people) are available. Call 1-888-99-AKRON (25766) for more information.
TERRY BOWDEN
What are you looking for this spring?
Our No. 1 priority this spring- there are a couple of them. We want to find the best 11 players on offense and defense. We have to get competition between individuals, so that the best 11 compete and show up on offense, and the best 11 on defense.
And there will be some players that will go both ways. Newman Williams played offense today—H-back and tight end—and he'll play defense as well. But we have to find the best 11. We could also be doing that with Jerome Lane. We have to find places to put the best 11.
Our offense will not be perfectly polished by the end of the spring, or our defense, but we want to execute our fundamentals and compete until we find the best 11.
That's what we're trying to do right now. We need to teach good fundamentals. So the key is getting the right people at every position and making them fundamentally sound.
What about the quarterback position?
I believe, without a doubt, the position deserves to be wide open with Tra'Von Chapman being ineligible last year (transfer rule) and him being eligible now. Now Kyle Pohl is way ahead, because he knows every assignment, and he knows every play. And Tommy Woodson. Because of the importance of that position and the fact that we need to improve at that position, we've got to be wide open at that position with those three.
What are you looking to improve at that position?
We just have to make plays. We need to get in the end zone. We had turnovers in the red zone last year, and we didn't get in the end zone. We averaged 21 points a game. Leading our team into the end zone is the most important thing. We just need to do a better job doing that.
What are you looking for in a quarterback?
To me, I want to see the quarterback position evolve a little bit better to a clear, vocal leader. Not one that has quiet leadership skills, but I think that needs to come out a little bit more for all of our quarterbacks. That's one key thing we're looking for. But I've had some awfully good quarterbacks—because poise and laid back and calmness and those things are part of the position— but I do believe there is an element of vocal leadership that we need to get out of that position as well.
On wide receivers:
We lost L.T. Smith, Zach D'Orazio, and Keith Sconiers. We lost some key players. We have enough receivers. Someone has to show me he is No. 1. And we've added Michael Means to the line-up. He transferred in. We have a lot coming back. We just need to see who is going to be No. 1. Austin Wolf was having a good year, and he broke his hand and missed all last year. Andrew Pratt, Mykel Traylor-Bennett, and Imani Davis ... we have people that can play; they've got to come out there and show they can do it.
You lost three-year starter Travis Switzer. Who are you looking at to take over at center?
Stephen Ericksen has been his back-up, He starts out No. 1 at center. We have some other guys that we're looking at behind him—Andrew Bohan, Kyle Ritz. We'll look at several people at center. That will be a new position, because Travis did a really good job for us.
