Albany State concludes spring football practice with Blue & Gold Scrimmage

ALBANY — Spring practice will officially conclude Thursday at Albany State with the team’s annual Blue & Gold Scrimmage at 6 p.m. at the Albany State University Coliseum.

After a successful 2015 regular season that ended with a disappointing loss in the SIAC Championship game, ASU head coach Dan Land said they’re looking to take it to the next level. In order to do that, Land said they have to better learn their personnel.

“When you’re talking about spring ball, you’re talking about evaluation,” he said. “You get a chance to evaluate some of the guys who didn’t play enough last year and upcoming guys may get to play, so we need to know what they can and cannot do and as coaches, we need to know what we can run offensively and what we can’t run, what we can run defensively and what we can’t run.”

Land added that spring workouts give them the freedom to experiment just a bit.

“Right now, what we’re doing is a lot of technique,” he said. “We’re trying some stuff to see if they’re gonna work for us offensively, defensively, special teams, if it don’t, we’re gonna kick it out.”

With most of their talented players returning, Land said the charge is on the coaching staff to bring home the SIAC title that’s alluded them for the last few years.

Offensively, the Rams have another quarterback battle on their hands. Former Monroe High standout and Albany Herald Player of the Year Charles Stafford is back in the mix after sitting last season due to academic issues.

He’s up against returning starter and All-Conference Second Team member Caleb Edmonds. In his first season under center, Edmonds completed 148 passes for 1,761 yards and seven touchdowns while rushing for 266 yards and two touchdowns. Land said they also signed two freshmen quarterbacks who may get a few reps. Regardless of who’s named starting quarterback, Land said they have the luxury of running back Jarvis Small acting as the offensive safety net.

Small was named the SIAC’s preseason offensive player of the year last year and after rushing for 1,037 yards and 11 touchdowns during the regular season.

Defensively, there will be large shoes to fill after losing Tavarius Washington to graduation, but Land said they will lean on junior safety Nick Scott. Scott had a standout sophomore season recording 49 solo tackles, two interceptions and a fumble. He was named to the All-Conference Second Team. Land said while they work to fill in the blanks at the linebacker positions, Scott will anchor the defense.

“If we’re playing a team that’s doing a lot of running, he’s gonna be around the line of scrimmage. If we’re playing a team that’s doing a lot of passing, he’s gonna be away from the line of scrimmage, so we used Nick that way because he’s a great player. He’s a good tackler, he’s a smart kid, so we have to use him the best way we can and it’ll help us out a lot.”