ALBANY OPENS FIRST SPRING PRACTICE
News and nuggets as Danes take the field
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany football opened up its first of 15 spring practices on Tuesday with the sun shining down on Casey Stadium. Though the season doesn’t start until August, it was the first look at a new-look Great Danes squad that’s getting ready to build off a 7-4 campaign in 2016.
Several players and head coach Greg Gattuso spoke with the media. Here are some of the more important notes.
Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks is well ahead of schedule
Albany’s star running back went down in the season’s final game against Stony Brook with a torn ACL. He’d run for 1,438 yards all season, and it was unclear if he’d be ready in time to play at the start of 2017, if at all.
On Tuesday, Ibitokun-Hanks was smiling and walking around Casey Stadium in good health and good spirits. He said he’s three weeks ahead of schedule. He’s also put on 12 pounds of muscle by working out his upper-body alone. The RB has been walking on his own for about 1.5 months, and hopes to be back for the start of the season.
He’ll lift on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays he’ll do lower-body lifts. And on Wednesday, he’ll get treatment with the team trainers.
“I feel great,” IbitokunHanks said. “Things are moving great. They told me last week that I’m ahead of schedule. So just coming in with the same mindset every day so we can get better and can get back out here.”
Gattuso said the silver lining to the injury is that it’ll let other running backs step up in practice, including Kendall Rodgers, for whom they have high expectations.
There is a quarterback competition
Neven Sussman rightfully took a lot of flack last season for his ineffective play behind center. He completed just 45.8 percent of his passes, and threw for just seven touchdowns in 10 games for the Great Danes.
That’s why, late in the season, Will Brunson took over for Sussman. Gattuso said on Tuesday that while Brunson is with the first team now, nothing is set in stone with so much time before the regular season starts.
“We have to throw the ball better,” Gattuso said. “We’re not going to win this league running the football up the middle . ... But for us to take a step, we have to throw the ball effectively. We put a lot of work into these young quarterbacks. They’re going into their third year, and I have confidence that we’re going to be able to throw the ball better.”
Brunson wasn’t keen on playing into the drama heading into Tuesday’s first practice. He started the last two games of last season and led the Great Danes to two big wins over New Hampshire and Stony Brook.
“When there’s a competition, all we’re trying to do is make each other better,” Brunson said. So whoever the coaches think should be out there, we want the best player out there. That’s what we do as quarterbacks.”
Nothing resolved with going to Elon
Albany has released part of its schedule for next season. Specifically, the part that will be played at Casey Stadium. The road portion is still missing, though, and that’s because there’s an awkward unresolved issue with a road game at Elon.
Because Albany is a state school, and there is no statesponsored funding for travel to North Carolina because of the HB2 bathroom bill, the Great Danes can’t commit to playing there.
Gattuso didn’t elaborate on any comment relating to the issue on Tuesday.
“I don’t really know the whole deal,” Gattuso said. “I don’t really worry about stuff I can’t control. This (football) is what I can control, and this is what I worry about.”
Elon has publicly stated that it doesn’t support the bill as a university, but that’s doing little to put a resolution to what might become a very relevant issue if it persists toward the beginning of the season.