By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University football coach Craig Schurig and his Ichabod coaching staff certainly had several things they wanted to get accomplished in spring football.
Washburn coach Craig Schurig talks to his team after Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage in Yager Stadium. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But after battling through an injury-riddled 2-9 season last fall, one of the major goals for the Ichabods was to get through the spring with a minimum of injuries.
So with that in mind, Washburn wrapped up its spring with Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage in Yager Stadium that included a lot of passing, rushing and kicking, but no full contact.
"We wanted to keep them healthy so we didn't do tackle,'' Schurig explained after the scrimmage. "That's frustrating I'm sure for players and sometimes it is for the coaches, too, but it's probably the smart way to do it.
"They're revved up to get after it and they kind of have to tone it down a little bit, but we really feel like we got what we wanted out of spring and came a long way.''
The Washburn roster was divided into two squads, and unlike some spring games in the past, score was not kept.
"It was just another day of work really,'' Schurig said. "We've had three of these style of scrimmages and they've all been kind of the same schedule and it's just getting another run at it.
"And then the last two segments we wanted to get some of the younger guys that didn't get a lot of team stuff scrimmage-wise some more reps so they can show on film how far along they've come. And other than that it was just competing against each other.''
Overall, Schurig was extremely pleased with what he saw out of his team throughout the spring.
"Comparing from where we were in the fall to now, there's a lot of improvement across the board,'' Schurig said. "And from Practice 1 in spring to Practice 15 there was tons of improvement -- offense, defense, special teams.
"Some guys are starting to get pretty confident, so now you're seeing them be more vocal and we we hope that leads into a great summer. That's really player led, so we feel like we have some good leadership and then we'll see in June. We've got to have great leadership in June.''
Washburn will open fall camp in early Aug. and will open the 2024 season at Emporia State on Thursday, Aug. 29. WU will open its home slate on Saturday, Sept. 14, hosting the Colorado School of Mines.
