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Apr. 10—BEMIDJI — The Beavers' offseason seems to be getting shorter and shorter every year.
The Bemidji State football team is back out on the field for spring practice after a winter that felt a little shorter than usual, thanks to the postseason run to the Super Region 4 Championship game.
Though there's still quite some time until BSU's season opener at Michigan Tech on Aug. 28, it's already been a busy offseason.
Starting quarterback Sam McGath is gone. Star wide receiver Bubba Peters is gone. The four starters that combined for one of the best defensive lines in the nation — Marcus Hansen, Stephen Hoffman, Marco Cavallaro and Cade Barrett — are all gone.
"It's always good to kind of turn the page," head coach Brent Bolte said. "Every year, it's like the offseason gets shorter, which is a good thing because you're winning football games. But we did lose a lot of quality, quality players over the last really four cycles. Just kind of got to get the stepping stones to see who's going to take over roles."
Along with the typical graduations and transfers that are part and parcel of collegiate football, the Beavers have had a few shakeups in the coaching staff.
Jordan Hein is back in Bemidji as the offensive coordinator, replacing Karson Pike.
Brandon Labath
and
Shevin Smith Jr.
have joined the staff as assistant coaches.
In short, spring ball will be one of the first major steps towards a season that will look quite different from last year's, at least in terms of roster and staff makeup.
But the Beavers are excited to be back on the gridiron and are more than ready for the competition that comes with spring ball.
"It's amazing, we've got another group of guys that's just ready to compete, ready to win," sophomore quarterback Connor Carver said. "Last year, obviously, there was a lot of older guys. Those guys have been through a lot together. Some of those guys were even here during COVID and stuff. So it's exciting that it feels like our time a little bit."
Some of the returning players are already stepping into leadership roles this spring, ready to prepare their younger teammates for the coming season.
"I love working with the younger guys, really get them to get going," sophomore defensive end Eli Coenen said. "Of course, I'm working on my game all the time too, but my goal for this is for sure getting the young guys up and ready for this next upcoming season for sure. ... I feel like there's a lot of people that stepped up in that (leadership) role."
This weekend, the Beavers will finally have a chance to hit someone who's not also wearing the green and white.
Bemidji State is heading down to Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday, taking on the Golden Bears for a 2 p.m. spring game.
"Eventually, you get tired of hitting somebody that is on your team, but I think I would say the guys in the trenches are a lot more excited than I am," Carver quipped.
It's the second iteration of the spring game in the new era.
Last spring, BSU traveled to Minnesota Duluth for the scrimmage. The Beavers look for NSIC opponents that they won't be playing in a given season, and go from there in terms of scheduling.
Naturally, these spring scrimmages don't play out like a traditional regular season game. Each team puts together different groupings, pitting offensive starters versus defensive starters, second-stringers versus second-stringers, etc. until they "run out of bodies." The goal is to get around 60 plays in.
With a contingent of Twin Cities-area players on the roster, the Beavers will also be participating in a social afterwards with families, players and alumni.
However, Bemidji State still approaches it like a traditional game week in practice. There's install on Tuesday and Thursday and a walk-through on Friday. Then it's off to the buses on Saturday.
"It's an opportunity to get these young guys on the road and play a road game, so to speak," Bolte said. "We treat this as, if you want to call it minus one week or zero week, however you want to look at it. This is our first opportunity, like I said, to go out and compete against somebody different. So just kind of (gets) the juices flowing when you get to go do it against somebody else."
For the coaching staff, the spring game is an opportunity to assess depth and positional competitions, seeing which players step up in a game-like situation.
"To round out our two deep, have a better understanding to see if we need to bring anybody in, rely on some freshman or transfers, that's part of it," Bolte said. "But sometimes when the lights get bright, some kids step up, some kids falter. So you want to see who's going to step up in those situations."
Bemidji State has lost plenty this offseason, but that's nothing new. Last year, the Beavers were tasked with replacing program legend Brandon Alt at quarterback, star wide receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby and a collection of other top-end talent sprinkled around the roster. And BSU still ended up making the deepest run in program history.
This year's squad is young and has plenty of question marks, but this Saturday is one of many stepping stones in seeing if the Beavers can reload yet again.
"It'll be fun, but it's a work day for us," Bolte said. "We've got to go down and perform well. We look at as an opportunity to put things on film, and you want to go out and dominate your opponents or play well. ... Like last year, I thought our team really played well at Duluth, but yet we were a really veteran group. We're a pretty young group this year, so just see which cast of guys steps up to the plate when the lights get bright.
Continue reading...
The Bemidji State football team is back out on the field for spring practice after a winter that felt a little shorter than usual, thanks to the postseason run to the Super Region 4 Championship game.
Though there's still quite some time until BSU's season opener at Michigan Tech on Aug. 28, it's already been a busy offseason.
Starting quarterback Sam McGath is gone. Star wide receiver Bubba Peters is gone. The four starters that combined for one of the best defensive lines in the nation — Marcus Hansen, Stephen Hoffman, Marco Cavallaro and Cade Barrett — are all gone.
"It's always good to kind of turn the page," head coach Brent Bolte said. "Every year, it's like the offseason gets shorter, which is a good thing because you're winning football games. But we did lose a lot of quality, quality players over the last really four cycles. Just kind of got to get the stepping stones to see who's going to take over roles."
Along with the typical graduations and transfers that are part and parcel of collegiate football, the Beavers have had a few shakeups in the coaching staff.
Jordan Hein is back in Bemidji as the offensive coordinator, replacing Karson Pike.
Brandon Labath
and
Shevin Smith Jr.
have joined the staff as assistant coaches.
In short, spring ball will be one of the first major steps towards a season that will look quite different from last year's, at least in terms of roster and staff makeup.
But the Beavers are excited to be back on the gridiron and are more than ready for the competition that comes with spring ball.
"It's amazing, we've got another group of guys that's just ready to compete, ready to win," sophomore quarterback Connor Carver said. "Last year, obviously, there was a lot of older guys. Those guys have been through a lot together. Some of those guys were even here during COVID and stuff. So it's exciting that it feels like our time a little bit."
Some of the returning players are already stepping into leadership roles this spring, ready to prepare their younger teammates for the coming season.
"I love working with the younger guys, really get them to get going," sophomore defensive end Eli Coenen said. "Of course, I'm working on my game all the time too, but my goal for this is for sure getting the young guys up and ready for this next upcoming season for sure. ... I feel like there's a lot of people that stepped up in that (leadership) role."
This weekend, the Beavers will finally have a chance to hit someone who's not also wearing the green and white.
Bemidji State is heading down to Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday, taking on the Golden Bears for a 2 p.m. spring game.
"Eventually, you get tired of hitting somebody that is on your team, but I think I would say the guys in the trenches are a lot more excited than I am," Carver quipped.
It's the second iteration of the spring game in the new era.
Last spring, BSU traveled to Minnesota Duluth for the scrimmage. The Beavers look for NSIC opponents that they won't be playing in a given season, and go from there in terms of scheduling.
Naturally, these spring scrimmages don't play out like a traditional regular season game. Each team puts together different groupings, pitting offensive starters versus defensive starters, second-stringers versus second-stringers, etc. until they "run out of bodies." The goal is to get around 60 plays in.
With a contingent of Twin Cities-area players on the roster, the Beavers will also be participating in a social afterwards with families, players and alumni.
However, Bemidji State still approaches it like a traditional game week in practice. There's install on Tuesday and Thursday and a walk-through on Friday. Then it's off to the buses on Saturday.
"It's an opportunity to get these young guys on the road and play a road game, so to speak," Bolte said. "We treat this as, if you want to call it minus one week or zero week, however you want to look at it. This is our first opportunity, like I said, to go out and compete against somebody different. So just kind of (gets) the juices flowing when you get to go do it against somebody else."
For the coaching staff, the spring game is an opportunity to assess depth and positional competitions, seeing which players step up in a game-like situation.
"To round out our two deep, have a better understanding to see if we need to bring anybody in, rely on some freshman or transfers, that's part of it," Bolte said. "But sometimes when the lights get bright, some kids step up, some kids falter. So you want to see who's going to step up in those situations."
Bemidji State has lost plenty this offseason, but that's nothing new. Last year, the Beavers were tasked with replacing program legend Brandon Alt at quarterback, star wide receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby and a collection of other top-end talent sprinkled around the roster. And BSU still ended up making the deepest run in program history.
This year's squad is young and has plenty of question marks, but this Saturday is one of many stepping stones in seeing if the Beavers can reload yet again.
"It'll be fun, but it's a work day for us," Bolte said. "We've got to go down and perform well. We look at as an opportunity to put things on film, and you want to go out and dominate your opponents or play well. ... Like last year, I thought our team really played well at Duluth, but yet we were a really veteran group. We're a pretty young group this year, so just see which cast of guys steps up to the plate when the lights get bright.
Continue reading...
