Buccaneers Begin Spring Football (Post & Courier: Charleston, SC)
"I think one of the main things that will be interesting is how do you handle success," said Chadwell, who took over the program last January. "Last year, we were hungry just trying to get respect and make it. Now we've had some success. So are we going to take the same approach or are we going to feel like we arrived? That mentality is going to be one of the keys to having a good spring."
"(When) you compare last year to this year, it's a lot different," Chadwell said. "Last year, we're simply trying to learn people and implement the way we want to do things. Then we're able to go out and you have a pretty successful season and have a lot of people coming back, so now we hope we're not spending a lot of time teaching how we want to do things practice-wise as far as the organization, the tempo, etc. Those things are done. Now we can really focus in on getting better with our scheme and getting better at the things we're trying to do so I think that's going to be a big difference."
"I think you'll see us probably implement a couple more things that we didn't last year because we didn't have enough time," Chadwell said. "Since we have an experienced team coming back, we'll try to put a little bit more on them now in the spring. We'll do some things with some different schemes on offense and looking at some guys in some different positions..."
"We've had some big gains in the weight room so I think that will be big for us," Chadwell said. "Now because we're bigger and stronger, we're doing things at a faster pace and a faster tempo.
One of the most intriguing position battles of spring camp figures to take place at quarterback, where UAB transfer Austin Brown joins the mix along with sophomores Danny Croghan III and Kyle Copeland. Croghan III was the Big South's Offensive Freshman of the Year, while Copeland started twice and exhibited some of his running promise in the spread option. Brown started seven games at quarterback for UAB last season and two years ago threw for over 2,600 yards and 15 touchdowns to earn freshmen all-conference honors in Conference USA.
"Danny and Kyle earned a lot of keep last season but as we've told the guys from the start, it's an open competition," Chadwell said. "We should have a solid competition there and really across the board. I'm anxious to see how guys stand up now that there's some true competition going on because that's what we want."
