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          Web site of the Daily Star, Hammond, Louisiana :: Search Archives: Search Classifieds: Lucas, Lions focus on spring goals | | | Text Size by John Lenz Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:10 AM CDT LOOK HERE—Southeastern head coach Mike Lucas, shown here during the New Mexico State game, and the Lions are looking to answer some questions at some key positions heading into the final days of spring practice. The Lions will end spring practice March 19. —Photo by John Lenz/Daily Star Files Southeastern's football team isn't even waiting for the crack of dawn to get cracking this spring. The Lions, working to avoid conflicts with labs and classes, are out at 5:30 a.m. on their practice days — which right now, in Daylight Savings Time, means they're giving the Strawberry Stadium lights a morning workout and enjoying the sunrise. As always, it's a leaner bunch than planned, what with the absence of many offensive linemen who did not return to the team either because of graduation, disciplinary/academic attrition or illiness. Also missing are two coaches from last season's defense, defensive line coach Dan Redding, who left to be closer to his grandchildren at Carson-Newman College, and defensive backs coach Lamar James, who resigned in hopes of landing a higher-paying job at Texas State. As it turns out, James didn't get the Texas State job, but Lucas said he won't return to the Lions’ coaching staff, either. ADVERTISEMENT Replacing those two has been made more difficult due to the state hiring freeze. Southeastern announced last week the re-hiring of Patrick Garvin, who was on the Lions’ staff in 2005 working with defensive ends, as the defensive line coach. Garvin has been in the Mississippi high school ranks the past two seasons, as the defensive coordinator at Gulfport High and then head coach at Lumberton High. Lucas is working on a hire as secondary/special teams coach, but needs to obtain a hiring freeze waiver before he can bring someone in. As a result, Lucas is back to coaching the DBs himself this spring. Daily Star Sports Editor John Lenz caught up with Lucas following Wednesday's morning practice to talk about the spring so far and what to expect heading into the final practice next Wednesday night (March 19): @Agate:<*Lz8> DS: What are your major goals and things you feel like you needed to get accomplished this spring? LUCAS: We've got to get some of our young guys, some of them redshirted and some of them had to play last year, we've got to get them up to speed at positions where we're thin. On our offensive line we've got to get some of those young guys ready to play. In the defensive backfield, we've got some really good young players, but we've got to get them more reps. And at wide receiver, the same thing. We've got young guys that we redshirted — Korey Theodore has had a great spring. Some of those guys we just have to get up to speed. DS: How many of your signees are in camp and practicing? LUCAS: Three, the three junior college guys — Jasper Ducksworth, the running back; Quinten Pierre the linebacker; and Brian Reynolds, the corner. Brian Reynolds, I wouldn't call him playing second-team corner right now, I'd say ‘1-B’. He's a very good player. Jasper Ducksworth is an unbelievable running back. He can do some things that even Jay (Lucas) can't do. He is so quick and can accelerate so fast. When he's in there behind that offensive line in run plays, you can't see him — and all of a sudden he's past you. And he can cut on a dime. He's very, very fast. Quinten Pierre is running with the first team at strong side linebacker. He's having a great spring package. DS: How much does the lack of available offensive linemen limit what you can do in spring practice? LUCAS: We wouldn't do much contact anyway. In spring ball you always cringe every time you go live because you've got to stay healthy. One of the things that hurt us last year was losing David Ward during spring ball. We do a lot of what we call ‘thud’, which is live at the point of attack but don't tackle the running backs. It has cut down the amount of things we can do in live work because you've only got one offensive line to go through. It's changed our practice schedule more than anything else. DS: The three guys who were lost for the season last year with injuries, give us an update on their status. LUCAS: David Ward (knee) is able to go through everything but contact right now. He seems like he's on schedule and doing well. Keithshone Dantzler (knee) is way ahead of schedule; he's doing everything right now but contact and looks very good. Walter Vaughn (broken arm) had a second surgery; he had some bone growth in the he arm that was impeding the motion of his biceps, so they had to go in and do a second surgery. They got that cleaned up and he looks really good right now, but he's not going through any live work either. But he is practicing. DS: What spots in the spring are the most competitive? LUCAS: The defensively line right now is very competitive with all the young guys we've got out there. There's some real good position battles going on in there, with John Williams and Devin Boutwell. We lost Devin for part of last year (illness) and he's really having a good spring. The guys we redshirted in the defensive line last year, Corey Neville and Jordan August are getting some snaps where they can push for a position. At wide receiver, I mentioned Korey Theodore. Andre Cryer played a little bit last year but now he's in a position where he can learn more of the offense. Those two spots are the two that really jump out. DS: You've had three months of the your offseason weight program; what kind of progress are you seeing? LUCAS: That's one of the reasons we've scheduled spring practice the way we have. We've got guys right now that are working out for three sets of three with what they maxed in December. You can tell guys that have fast-twitch muscle but haven't lifted very much in high school. When you take that athleticism and teach those guys how to lift, you really see great gains. In our freshman group, we have seen some very great gains. It is very important because some of those guys like Ryan Anderson, John Williams, Nathan Clophus, Devin Boutwell, those guys saw playing time last year, but they just weren't quite physical enough at the point of attack to get down what we needed to get done. So it caused us to do a lot of slanting and moving around and such. But their strength levels are really coming up, so it's going to help us immensely. DS: What's the situation at quarterback right now? LUCAS: We've got good competition going on right now. In fact, Mike Neville and Brian Babin are alternating with the ones. Mike is having a great spring practice; he's really pushing. Both of them are pushing each other and working hard. DS: Do you see an increased role for Neville this year; I know you spotted him in last year and used him in certain situations? LUCAS: From what Coach (Tommy) Condell has told and what I see out here right now, Mike is pushing to be the starter. He does some things in some situations better than Brian, and there's some things Brian does better than Mike. Right now there's a great competition right there and I wouldn't be able to say today, if we were playing, who the starter would be between those two guys. DS: I know it's the time of year to be optimistic, but from what you've seen so far, has your outlook changed at all? Do you feel better about it or are there areas you worry about, or is it too soon to tell? LUCAS: I think it's too soon to tell. This league is going to be so tough. McNeese has got so many people back, Northwestern's got a bunch of people back, Sam Houston's got the quarterback back, Texas State's got their quarterback back. The league is going to be tough. I guess I'm an eternal optimist. I think we're a better football team right now, except possibly in the offensive line, than we were at any point last year. We've got to get those junior college offensive linemen in here, and some of these young guys in the offensive line have got to step up. Comment Blog - Note: All Comments Subject To Approval Comments are limited to 200 words or less. (optional) Current Word Count:   COMMENT RULES Comment posters are responsible for the opinions they express and the accuracy of the information they provide. We urge comment writers to treat this as a public forum where manners matter. 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