Emporia State football coach Garin Higgins will be expecting a lot more out of his players in Saturday’s Spring Game than just effort and execution.
He’ll also be expecting them to have a good time as well.
“We want our kids to be able to have fun in this Spring Game,” Higgins said. “We’ve been working really hard for the last 13 practices. It’s time for them to enjoy it.”
The annual Black-Gold Spring Game will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Welch Stadium.
For the first time all spring, players will go at each other in a true game situation with a running clock.
“We want to see our guys compete,” Higgins said, “and go make plays.”
It will be Hornet fans’ first opportunity to get a peek at the new offensive and defensive schemes put in by Higgins in his first year as head coach of the Hornets.
The offense has gone to a no-huddle set very similar to that used by Oklahoma State. The players set themselves, then turn to the sidelines to receive the play from the offensive coaches.
On defense, ESU has gone to a 4-3 set, consisting of four defensive linemen and three linebackers.
The Hornets ran a 4-2 for most of last season.
“The players are adapting really well,” Higgins said. “It’s a defense that’s going to put a lot of pressure on you. We’re definitely not going to be sitting on our heels defensively.”
Fans will also get their first glimpse of quarterback Andre Sloan El, a junior-college transfer from Visalia (Calif.) College of the Sequoias.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior has been taking snaps with the first-team offense this spring.
“I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs with Andre,” Higgins said. “I think the kid has done a lot of good things and really done some exciting things that make you sit back and say, ‘Look, this kid has a chance to be pretty good.’
“The thing with Andre —he’s got to come out focused, ready to go everyday.”
Incumbent Ben Purkeypile also is competing for the No. 1 quarterback spot.
The two teams will be loosely divided based on the depth chart, with the Gold team starting off with 17 points to make the game more even.
More schedule talk
Higgins admitted on Thursday that his team’s early-season schedule — one in which the Hornets play four of their first five games on the road — would be a challenge.
He said it wouldn’t be an excuse, though.
“We can’t get upset over that because we can’t control it. It is what it is,” Higgins said. “We’ve got to go out and make the best of it. Once we get through that trip, we’re going to have a lot of games at home.”
ESU will play its only two nonconference games on the road — the first against Western State in Gunnison, Colo., and the second against Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Okla.
The Hornets have one home game against Southwest Baptist before traveling to play Fort Hays State and Missouri Southern in the fourth and fifth games of the season.
“We’re going to have to grow up fast,” Higgins said. “That’s why again we’re going to have to do things right. We can’t turn the ball over. We can’t put ourselves in a second-and-long situation. We’ve got to stay out of those types of situations.”
Higgins also knows the difficulty first-hand of playing in the altitude at Mountaineer Bowl in Gunnison, which is the highest collegiate football stadium in the world at 7,750 feet above sea level. Higgins was a quarterback for the Hornets when they last played at Western State in 1989.
“It will be (difficult),” Higgins said. “I don’t care what anybody says — I’ve played out there. It just takes awhile to get used to.
“We’re not going to concentrate on that, we’re not going to talk about it. We’re just going to get ready to play.”
Season tickets go on sale Monday at the Hornet Athletic Ticket Office in the ESU Memorial Union. Season-ticket holders receive a $1 discount over buying individual game tickets.