B-CU starts spring football practice with new faces

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- Bethune-Cookman began spring practice Monday with several new faces on the field and one on the sideline.

B-CU coach Brian Jenkins said about eight transfers and early enrollees joined the Wildcats' returning players for the first day of spring practice. It was also the first chance for new offensive coordinator Jim Pry to see the players participate in football drills.

"The main thing is you want to get some rhythm back, and you want to get back to swarming the football," Jenkins said. "We didn't do an exceptional job with that (last year)." The Wildcats led the nation with 41 takeaways in Jenkins' first season in 2010. Last year, despite defensive end Ryan Davis leading the nation with eight forced fumbles, their total number takeaways slipped to 30.

"When you have that kind of dropoff, you need to get back to teaching the basics," Jenkins said.

The new players in spring camp will have a jump on the rest of the 2012 recruiting class when preseason practice begins in August, the coach said.

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