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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Friday Signals Start of Spring Football Practice
6/21/1999 | Football
March 18, 1999
OXFORD, Miss. - When spring football practice begins here Friday at Ole Miss, new head coach David Cutcliffe says it will be more about players, not plays.
"I think it's real critical that we identify where our players are and make a good evaluation off our time with them in the bowl and coming out of our off-season conditioning program," Cutcliffe said. "If we strengthen the number of players that are readily available to play, then we make ourselves a better team. It's all about being as good a team as we can, but we have to think and concentrate on what we have to do with our personnel."
Cutcliffe, who replaced Tommy Tuberville as head coach of the Rebels last December 2, picked up his first Ole Miss coaching win with a 35-18 victory over Texas Tech in the Sanford Independence Bowl. It rated as possibly the bowl season's biggest upset, especially since Cutcliffe had less than a month to hire a staff and prepare Ole Miss for a battle against the favored Red Raiders.
"This is truly the new beginning and it's an exciting time," Cutcliffe said of the start of spring practice. "We've had a good off season program and our strength and conditioning staff has done a good job. Our coaches have also done a good job of encouraging our kids. Now, we're moving into Phase Two, which is spring practice."
After losing only five starters from last year's 7-5 team, the Rebels return a nucleus at certain positions and on both sides of the ball.
Offensive starters to be replaced include center Matt Luke, guard Mitch Baker and All-America tight end Rufus French, who is passing up his senior season to enter the National Football League draft. Defensive starters not back are end Morris Scott and cornerback Gary Thigpen.
Returning starters on offense include quarterback Romaro Miller, running backs Deuce McAllister and Joe Gunn, wide receivers Grant Heard and Cory Peterson, tackles Todd Wade and Tutan Reyes and guard Keydrick Vincent.
The Rebels will also welcome back a former offensive guard starter, Terrence Metcalf, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Vanderbilt last season. Metcalf, who will go through spring drills on a limited basis, is expected to retain his sophomore status once he receives a medical redshirt from the NCAA.
Grant Heard, who suffered a knee injury during practice the week of the bowl game and had surgery, is not expected to participate in spring drills.
Defensively, returning starters include end Derrick Burgess, tackles Keydrick Clancy and Comone Fisher, linebackers Ronnie Heard, Armegis Spearman and Eddie Strong, and defensive backs Timothy Strickland, Kenny Woods, and Anthony Magee.
Burgess will miss spring drills after having knee surgery and defensive lineman Antionne Scott, who suffered an ankle injury after starting in the Independence Bowl, will also miss spring workouts after having surgery. Linebacker Walt Hill is also out of spring action due to a knee injury.
"Our biggest challenge this spring is to develop some depth and consistency," Cutcliffe said. "Offensively, we have the great challenge of installing our offensive system. That's going to be critical."
The Rebels are expected to be running a Multiple-Pro system on offense and a Multiple 4-3 on defense.
"We're going to try to get a real diverse look on both sides of the ball and challenge our defense with as many different looks as they are going to see in the coming year," Cutcliffe added. "We'll do the same thing defensively and let our defense challenge our offense with all the different looks and blitzes."
As far as practice is concerned, all teams are limited to 15 practice days in the spring. One of those for the Rebels will be the annual Red-Blue game, set for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 17. This year's event, which is sponsored by the Ole Miss M-Club Alumni Association, has been dubbed as "Grove Bowl '99."
