For the Sacramento State football team, spring football in 2012 marks the beginning of a new chapter in the program’s history.
2011 was a season full of highs and lows that saw the Hornets defeat Oregon State in Corvallis, beat Montana for the first time ever, and win a game without completing a pass. Along with those highs though, the low points saw the Hornets struggle in the kicking game, miss the playoffs, and lose the Causeway Classic at home.
The Hornets will put that all behind them though as they march into spring football, which is set to open up on Wednesday. Spring football marks the start of position battles, players getting into playing shape, and for this year’s team, the installation of a new offense.
Along with bringing in more than 20 new recruits, Coach Marshall Sperbeck also added an offensive coordinator to his staff for the 2012 season. He hired Paul Peterson, who spent the past four seasons with Southern Utah as the team’s passing game coordinator, quarterbacks and receivers coach.
“(Sac State is) real close to getting over the hump,” Peterson said. “Hopefully I’m going to be a part that’s going to be consistent in competing in the Big Sky and winning championships.”
Sperbeck said that having Peterson in as an offensive coordinator would provide the biggest change for him as far as spring ball is concerned.
“I think the biggest difference is that we do have an offensive coordinator,” Sperbeck said. “Obviously that will free me up to probably get around and be more involved with some other team responsibilities, so I’m looking forward to that.”
The Hornets will utilize spring football as a time to sort out positional battles, as well as install the new offense that Peterson will bring to the team. According to Peterson, he and Sperbeck worked together on combining their two playbooks to make the transition as easy as possible for the players. Even with those efforts to make the transition easier for the Hornets, there is still work to be done to get players to master the new offense.
“You start off with some basic things,” Peterson said. “We start with formations. We want each of our student-athletes to understand that going in; they need to know every formation so we don’t need to spend time installing that.”
Once players have the formations mastered, they’ll move on to integrating the basic concepts of the offense, and then adding to it from there.
“As far as signals go, it’s kind of a progression,” the Hornets offensive coordinator said. “You start out simple and you can build from there. The basic fundamentals, getting lined up, the cadence, those types of things are where you start, and then you get into the meat of the stuff and the plays.”
Peterson said that by the time spring ball is finished, he wants to have the entire playbook installed.
“Once we get to a point and figure out what we do well, we’ll build off of those plays with certain things,” he said.
The Hornets will not only need to adapt to a whole new playbook, but they’ll have to pick up the concepts of the playbook quickly and know them well as Peterson plans on having the team run a no-huddle offense that will feature more of a spread passing attack than the Hornets have used in years past.
“We’re going to go no huddle, up-tempo offense,” Peterson said. “We’re going to have a little more emphasis on the pass than we will on the run.”
Despite more of an emphasis on the passing game, Peterson said he will not abandon the Hornets’s rushing attack.
“We’re still going to run the ball,” he said. “I think they did that fantastic last year. They put a lot of emphasis on the run game and they were successful at it. That’s part of the offense that I’m super excited about.”
Something that arises with the installation of a new offense is the question about who will be conducting the Hornets’s new, no huddle attack.
According to Sperbeck, quarterback, along with every other position, is wide open heading into spring workouts.
“Every time you go into spring football, every job’s open, every position is open,” he said. “We want to encourage our spring ball to be competitive at every position.”
For the Hornets, there are currently three players vying for the opening at quarterback following the departure of last year’s starter, Jeff Fleming.
Garrett Safron is a contender for the position after taking the reins when Fleming went down with an injury. Safron split time with Tommy Edwards, who transferred to Occidental College, before emerging as the team’s starter. In 5 games for the Hornets, Safron completed 24 of 57 pass attempts for 394 yards and three touchdowns. He contributed 53 carries for 286 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. His 286 rushing yards were good for fourth best on the team.
Another player that is eyeing the starting quarterback spot for the Hornets in 2012 is University of Nevada-Reno transfer, Mason Magleby. Magleby saw very limited action in his three seasons at UNR. In 16 games for the Wolfpack Magleby completed 10 of 11 passes for 109 yards and four touchdowns.
Despite his limited playing time, Sperbeck still thinks Magleby can contend for the starting quarterback spot.
“We’re excited to have him as a member of our team,” he said. “He did some good things up at UNR…We think that he can come here and compete for the starting job.”
Another quarterback on the radar is freshman Nolan Sorensen from Buchanan High School in Clovis. Sperbeck said that Sorensen “has a chance to develop as a guy for the future.”
Sorensen was also being recruited by Peterson while Peterson was at Southern Utah.
After weeks of meetings, the team and its new coaching staff are ready to get back on the field. The Hornets will go without pads for their first two practices, and will only wear helmets. Their third day they will go into full pads. After that, the team will be practicing four days per week for the next three weeks before the final Spring Game on April 21st at 9 a.m.
“I can’t wait to see how these guys perform with the football,” Peterson said with a smile on his face. “We’ve had some team runs where we’re out there running around; I’ve seen them in the weight room and I’m super excited about the caliber of student-athletes that we have. I’m getting to know each one of them more and more and I’m excited to get out and play some football.”
