Several Northern State football players made lasting impressions during the spring game on Saturday.
The Wolves' spring season culminated with their annual spring game at Swisher Field. The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but the snowy weather moved the game back. The sidelines and the track were still blanketed with snow.
No score was kept. Instead, the coaching staff set up offense vs. defense situations as players continue to battle for positions for the regular season.
"Today, at times we did some good things," Northern State coach Tom Dosch said. "We looked sharp at times. There was a few other times where we maybe got a little flat, but overall, I thought we came out and played hard and played aggressively and physically."
One of the players that has his spot secure is quarterback Jared Jacobson. The honorable mention all-conference signal caller played the first series on Saturday, but then the backup quarterbacks got the rest of the reps. Zac Emde, Shane Erickson and Taylor Zemlicka split most of the offensive snaps on Saturday.
"Jared has a lot of reps this spring and he has a lot of reps in the last year and a half," Dosch said. "We thought it was important that a lot of our other quarterbacks continue to get live reps."
While the starting quarterback position is secure, the wide receiver positions are up for grabs. The Wolves lost all-conference wideouts, Chris Morton and Mark Hanley, due to graduation from last year. Another top receiver from last season, Jordan Piatz, sat out the game due to a wrist injury.
"We have got to get better at that position," Dosch said. "Both leadership-wise and performance-wise that is a position we have to keep getting better at."
Wide receivers Tanner White and Wil Carlson got most of the first-team reps on Saturday. Chris Malsam, Jordan Freeman, Tyler Oftedahl, Bobby Brown and Tyson Zemlicka were the among the players that got several reps from the wide receiver position on Saturday.
"The competition was great," White said about the wide receiver spots. "We have a lot of young guys. We have some guys that need to fulfill the leadership."
White hauled in a touchdown reception from Emde during the red zone drills. Carlson was also targeted quite a bit by the quarterbacks. John Hughes, Stephen Erlandson, Cameron Pudwill and Taylor Houchin all spent time carrying the ball. Taylor Zemlicka showed off his wheels with a 50-yard quarterback keeper for a touchdown.
"Overall we did well," said White, an Ellendale, N.D., graduate. "We put it in a couple of times. It was just good to be out here."
The defense also had some fun on Saturday as well. Defensive lineman Dalton Wangerin caused a fumble and defensive back Channing Barber picked up the ball and raced for a touchdown. Fellow defensive back Matt Thorson had a pair of interceptions.
"I think we played well," said Thorson, a Groton graduate. "We had good plays and we had some bad plays. We had a scoop and score for a touchdown so that was big for us, but then we let a run up around the corner for a touchdown. You have to take the good and the bad with every game."
There were several defensive players jockeying for positions as well. The Wolves like to rotate several players on defense and they did so on Saturday. Therefore, a number of players were able to play on Saturday. Dosch added that the team likes to especially rotate players in the front seven.
"We feel we have some good young players at those spots that can really push each other and same thing at linebacker," Dosch said. "We lost some good players there, but excited with the guys we have got there pushing each other. We have a little more experience in secondary, but just trying to build some of our younger kids because that was one spot we didn't have a lot of depth was in the secondary, particularly at safety and at corner."
The Wolves will now do individual workouts for the rest of the off-season in preparation for the fall. NSU will report for fall ball on August 14. The Wolves first game of the season is Sept. 7 vs. Wayne State.
"We are really excited," Thorson said about the season. "We have high hopes. We are looking forward to the fall."