The Bulldogs have lofty goals -- WAC championship, BCS bowl berth. None of those can be accomplished in the spring. So this spring was about staying healthy, improving depth and working out the kinks for a team that returns 10 starters on offense.

Coach Pat Hill and the Bulldogs aren't shying away from the lofty expectations. At the spring game, he told fans to buy season tickets now because they didn't want to be left out.

Hill has always been a master at promotion and if the Bulldogs can get through a difficult nonconference schedule -- Rutgers, Wisconsin, UCLA -- then he's right, there won't be any room on the bandwagon.

Spring wasn't all about selling tickets and merchandise, the Bulldogs did need to find some players on the defensive side of the ball, most notably at linebacker, where WAC Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Riley and outside linebacker Trevor Shamblee departed.

The open competition includes Quaadir Brown, a part-time starter in 2007, and Nick Bates, who started one game last year. Nico Herron and freshman Kyle Knox are competing for the job of replacing Riley. Ben Jacobs will be a second-year starter in the middle.

The emergence of kicker Kevin Goessling was a pleasant development. Kicker, with the departure of Clint Stitser, is probably the team's biggest question mark.

Fourteen players sat out the spring game with various injuries and several of the stars played sparingly.

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