With the Wofford football team in its third week of spring practice, defensive coordinator Nate Woody likes the continued improvement of his young unit.
The Terriers return seven defensive starters from last year's squad.
Two-time All-SoCon nose tackle Katon Bethay is the lone first-team returnee on the defensive front.
The inside linebacker corps welcomes back Justin Franklin and Jim Thurman. As a sophomore in the 2004 campaign, Franklin was Wofford's top tackler. His 116 stops were 38 more than the next closest Terrier. Thurman, a rising senior, has 262 stops over his first three seasons to rank second on the Terriers' career tackles list for the Division I-AA era (1995-present).
The secondary returns cornerbacks Brian Kemp and Dedrick Stuckey as well as free safety Alex Love. Strong safety Dan Tavani started four games as a freshman last year and was named the Terriers' Best Defensive Back and Rookie of the Year.
"The guys are playing hard," Woody said. "We're getting better at our assignments, but we're not there yet.
"A lot college coaches will tell you during spring ball that you're not to the point you'd really like to be, but we're pleased as long as we're making progress. We're trying to move through and go a little slower than we have in years past because we have a bunch of young guys on defense. We need them to understand the basics before we move on to something else.
"As we continue to go through spring ball, we'll see how much we can accomplish, get in and do it right."
Franklin recorded eight tackles for a loss, including a sack, in last Friday's opening scrimmage.
"Justin made a lot of plays," Woody said. "We've always known that he could be a playmaker for us.
"In this last scrimmage, he got better at seeing his keys, going on to the next progression and making plays for us in the run game."
Woody has also been pleased with the play of defensive linemen Bethay, Bryan Blair and Erik Hutchinson. A 5-foot-9, 250-pound rising junior from Bennettsville, S.C., Blair came to Wofford as a walk-on. Hutchinson (Woodbine, Ga.) will be a fifth-year senior. He received a medical hardship due to an injury in the 2002 campaign.
The Terriers will hold their second spring scrimmage Saturday at 10 a.m.
