 At the forefront of the BSU football team's spring practices this year were position battles galore, especially on the offensive side of the ball. After graduating three offensive linemen, a running back and three ride receivers, the Beavers have a lot of holes to fill on their offense, but they have been happy with the progress of their young players, especially Hank Belify and James Hoovey on the offensive line. Hank right now, he's taking all the one reps as a center and he's doing a really good job. You know, James is playing a lot of guard, mixing in a little bit of center too, but you know, Hank's competing for the starting job as a center, so he's still got a lot of room to improve, but that said, from practice one to where we are now, you can see the improvement and see the weight room strength that he has as transition to the field. The defense has also had a couple of holes to fill while they are very confident in their defensive line. They'll do have two open spots at safety after losing Damon Benham and Camille Alcorri, but they feel like they have some playmakers in their secondary no matter who gets on the field. You have Jake Lival, who's, we just tried to get him on the field last year. We had the two experienced guys, so we had to get creative to get him out on the field at nickel. He should be as good as any of the safeties that we've had. He just misses a little bit in the experience department. He got Evan Tompkins, who has started a bunch of games before with some injuries with Camille and Benham over the years. So those two guys have a lot of experience playing. Johnny Vogler is certainly a good football player too. He's probably the best athlete. Wow, him and Lival. So, and then we got a bunch of young guys kind of working through the mix too, so I think we'll be okay back there. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.