MARSHALL — Spring is a time of rebirth. There is a theme of renewal and growth. And despite Mother Nature’s best attempts at delaying that feeling, it’s not stopping Southwest Minnesota State University senior linebacker Onte Burns and the rest of the Mustangs football team from getting out and doing what they love.

“I love football, I think we all love football and we’ve been away from the game for a long time,” Burns said. “It’s Minnesota so it’s super cold, so putting the pads on is truly a blessing.”

SMSU has been conducting spring practices since March 21 under the direction of a new leader. Scott Underwood takes over the reigns after spending 12 seasons (2008-19) at St. Cloud State University that included 10 winning seasons and three NCAA playoff appearances. Underwood said it’s great to be back coaching college football again after a two-year absence, especially in the familiar atmosphere of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

“It’s been great. We don’t have our staff fully assembled at this point, but the opportunity to get out here and back into coaching, it’s something that I’ve done for a long time,” Underwood said. “I’m back within this conference and they’re very welcoming at the University and certainly the town of Marshall. They’ve welcomed me with open arms and make me a part of it.”

Senior running back Jesse Sherwood said Underwood’s transition has been seamless.

“It’s always kind of tough when you get a new coach and definitely a head coach, but I feel like we’ve adjusted well,” Sherwood said. “Coach Underwood, everyone on the team loves him, and his transition here has been perfect.”

“He’s very thorough and more structured and disciplined in what we do,” Burns added. “Everything is also more simple, so I think that will help us out a lot.”

Underwood said he’s gotten to know more about his players each day and is excited about the progress they’ve made so far.

“You get to see them in a winter weightlifting session and movement skills but now we’re out here running around working on being team leaders and certainly the skill sets they have as a football player not just truly running in shorts and doing some things like that,” Underwood said. “We’re getting to know more about them, there’s a lot of learning on both the offensive and defensive sides, but I’m excited about the steps we’ve taken. We still have progress to make, but step by step we’re getting there.”

Throughout their 15 total practices/scrimmages, Underwood said defensively, they’ve been working on a 4-2-5 system as well as some 3-4 schemes and strengthening their communication. Offensively, they’re putting in a brand new system under co-offensive coordinators David Rocco and Doug Patterson.

“Defensively, we’re trying to add a 4-2-5 defense which they were in prior to me being here, but when we start changing terminology, that becomes a little bit different for some of them trying to grab what it may have been equated in old system they had been in for a while. We’re also trying to do some 3-4 stuff, so when you talk about the 3-4 that’s a ton of communication and the kids have to learn that to be able to communicate and tell other people what to do, they have to know it pretty well,” Underwood said. “Offensively, coach Rocco and coach Patterson are both coming from Western Illinois and installing a brand new offensive system and terminology, so that’s been very taxing on our offense.”

SMSU will finish their spring practices today with the Spring Game at 6 p.m. As they look ahead towards next fall, Underwood said the key takeaway will be seeing how his players respond to adversity when they go through things at game-speed on a consistent basis.

“I think the key thing is getting a chance to see them have to produce a little bit,” Underwood said. “We’ve had just one live session which is about 20 plays so we haven’t had a full chance to see what they can do but I think we’re excited when that time comes around to have them perform at a game-time speed level and see how they handle it. There’s always adversity to that with good plays and bad plays and we’ll see which kids respond best to it.”

Sherwood added they’re excited about the opportunity to grow in every aspect each day and see where it takes them.

“We’re just looking on growing; growing in every aspect that we can, whether it’s our relationships on the field or off the field, with the coaches learning the scheme or just building that chemistry,” Sherwood said. “We’re just trying to build in every area that we can and I’m looking forward to it all.”