Mark Gerster will make the move from defensive end to tackle this year for the Cardinals.

 
LIBERTY, Missouri - After weeks of practice and hard work, the Cardinal’s concluded their spring football session on Saturday April 25th with a full team scrimmage that put the offense against the defense in the team’s first action in front of their fans since last year’s season finale. This scrimmage featured much of what had been displayed during the first four weeks of spring football; however, some new story lines have emerged that will leave us waiting anxiously until the start of the 2009 season.

As we have seen throughout the spring, the Cardinal’s defense continued to show the speed and intensity that will make it a force to be dealt with this coming year. During this spring scrimmage, players like Mark Gerster, Chris Robles, and Ryan Florence played as they had throughout the spring, with the passion and leadership that will push this defense to continue to improve as the season gets closer. While youth often leads to some mistakes, this team’s passion and intensity will make up for any inexperience this team has, and will only help defensive coordinator, Jarrod Kruse, and the rest of the defensive coaching staff build this defense into a great overall unit in 2009.

Coming into this spring, two of the biggest question marks on defense were the defensive line and the safety positions. With the graduation of Shane Spencer, Aaron McQuinn, and Lynn Nutt the defensive line would have to fill its three positions with players who saw very little playing time last year. However, after four weeks of spring practice, along with the spring scrimmage, it is clear that the defensive line is in good hands with Cody Sharp playing on the end and Mark Gerster making the move to defensive tackle. This group has improved as the spring has progressed and the fans that attended the spring game got to see just a glimpse of what this defensive line can do.

Another big question coming into this spring session was at the safety position, with the vacancies left by Eric Johnson and Clayton Hewitt. One of the bright spots in this area of the field was the performance of Daniel Meegan, a junior safety out of Lake Dallas, Texas. After a great spring session, including back-to-back practices with multiple interceptions and pass deflections, Meegan continued to show that he is prepared to step into the starting role and help improve the Cardinal secondary in 2009.

The offense also had a good showing during the spring scrimmage. The running game continued to impress with the success of Jake Lynch. The junior transfer from Emporia State has shown promise all spring and he delivered on that potential on Saturday. There is little doubt that Jewell fans will see much more from him as we get into the 2009 season. Sophomore running back Bobby Rech was also impressive during the final scrimmage; his performance was very encouraging because he will be able to add some much need depth, which will be a great asset to the Cardinal’s running game.

One of the biggest improvements this spring has been the performance in the passing game. Quarterback Drew Witman has continued to work with the wide receivers throughout the spring to improve their timing and lead this offense as it incorporates a few new features into its repertoire. Backup quarterback Tommie Farinacci has also looked impressive this spring; not only will he give the Cardinals some depth on offense, he also brings great quickness to the quarterback position that will most likely be utilized by this offense in some form throughout the season.

Although spring practice is now over, we can be sure that the Cardinals will continue working to improve this team throughout the summer so that they are prepared for the start of the 2009 season, which begins on September 5th, at 6:00 when they face the Benedictine Ravens.