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Can spring stars deliver in the fall?

C. J. Prosise

Just like spring marks the end of winter, it also begins another unofficial season on the gridiron. The emergence of spring stars. These breakout stars sometimes burn out before fall rolls around, but it doesn’t make their emergence any less interesting.

It may be a linebacker freed by a graduating veteran. Or a lineman who had a monster offseason in the weight room. Perhaps it’s a freshman, more than ready to take off that redshirt.

Every spring, a handful of players emerge. Some turn out to be mirages. Some, like Joe Schmidt last spring, give all the clues they’ll be ready to be frontline players when fall comes around, and when they do it’s all the more fulfilling.