New football coach ‘enjoying’ first spring season

The Flyer spring football season wrapped up April 4. Photo by Keegan Gupta, director of digital media & photography.

Max Cross | Sports Editor

Newly appointed Dayton football head coach Trever Andrews’ first spring will conclude on April 2 with the annual spring game, followed by one more practice on April 4. 

“It’s been a blast to say the least,” Andrews said. “I’ve really enjoyed it. The guys are working hard. It’s been fun and competitive. Whenever you have a whole new staff and you’re putting in new systems offensively and defensively, it’s not like one group is ahead of the other. You’re working on your installs and learning the new schemes and systems all at once. I don’t want to say it’s been smooth, but it’s been competitive, and it’s been a good experience for the players and the coaches.”

Dayton hired Andrews, a 1998 UD graduate, on Dec. 12. The announcement came just two weeks  after Rick Chamberlin announced his retirement. Andrews took over a program that finished 8-3 last season and fell one victory short of its first Pioneer Football League championship since 2015.

Andrews announced the hiring of five assistant coaches on Jan. 12, as well as a 37-man recruiting class in February. He has since added two players to that class: safety Vincent Firenze, of West Genesee High School and Syracuse, N.Y.; and running back Luke Hansen, of Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. 

The spring game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on April 2 and the team captains for the upcoming season will be released immediately after the conclusion of the game. 

The spring game will be the 14th of 15 practices since March 1. The quarterback competition will continue Sunday. Dante Casciola, who won the starting job last season but suffered a season-ending injury in the fifth game of the season, and Cole Dow will get most of the snaps.

“We’re trying to get as many guys snaps as we can,” Andrews said. “We’ve got six quarterbacks on the roster right now, so it’s hard to get six guys a million reps. We’ll try to spread them out as much as we can. But those two will get the bulk of it and then the other guys will divvy up the rest.” 

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