Atterberry pleased following SE spring football

With increased numbers of healthy bodies and depth, Southeastern was able to finish up spring football drills with a full scale spring game recently that left head coach Bo Atterberry and others optimistic heading into the fall.

That depth increase from a year ago was one of the biggest positives with a host of redshirt freshmen stepping in for their first meaningful action while turning heads on both sides of the football.

“Our plan year in and year out is to have the roster in a position for a full-scale spring game with two full squads,” Atterberry commented. “I think things get a little monotonous at times in practice, so the spring game gives us a good evaluation of guys that might have been back up or third team but then get put in a position to where they are counted on to step in and show what they can do. You can find out a lot in that setting. It was fun and competitive, and I like the way the guys performed.

“I thought we mentally took a step in the right direction of controlling things that we can control and controlling our emotions down in and down out as opposed to the fall. We had a lot of young guys get some experience out of necessity last year and have looked better. I feel our redshirt group has created some depth that might allow us to be more consistent where we lacked last year. I feel like we have taken a step in the right direction in being more efficient and eliminating negative plays that really killed us at times during the fall.”

One of the spots of most interest was obviously at quarterback where the Savage Storm had a virtual revolving door of signal callers a year ago after the graduation loss of all-time leading passer Daulton Hatley, who held that spot for multiple years.

The only quarterback returning that garnered time a season ago is junior Weston Conaway, but strong armed sophomore Cergio Perez will battle for time along with a couple others that have flashed solid signs as well.

“We have had a really good competition this spring with Conaway back and a couple guys that redshirted,” Atterberry said. “We have made adjustments offensively after struggling some following losing the leading passer in school history. Those adjustments should help those younger guys become more consistent.

“Our running back room hasn’t changed but we’re going to incorporate some new receivers. I don’t know if you ever replace a dynamic player like a Marquis Gray but it might be a by committee approach to get where we need to be.”

In addition to building depth, especially on the offensive and defensive lines, the Southeastern coach also admitted their key word of the spring was consistency and avoiding mistakes.

That approach also included focusing on avoiding explosive plays on defense while looking for those same big plays offensively.

“Our young guys looked pretty good, but the spring is still nothing like a game will look like in the fall,” he added. “We know we will still go through some growing pains but I feel like those guys have a lot of upside for good futures around here. We just want to put ourselves in position to play our best football consistently and not beat ourselves. Does that equate to several more wins? You would hope so but that remains to be seen.

“Depth up front will be crucial to our success. We have young guys defensively that will need to experience the feel of an actual game and get accustomed to it. We were fairly efficient in the spring though and think that puts us in position to decrease the amount of drop off when someone else might have to come into the game. We wanted to create competition and sharpen each other to have more guys that are ready. That takes repetition and work. I have confidence in those guys in avoiding making the same mistakes multiple times with our older and more experienced guys leading the way.”