With the snow melt­ing away and the sun finally mak­ing an appear­ance, the Bulldogs con­tin­ued their spring prepa­ra­tion with the first major scrim­mage of the year.

Ferris strapped on the hel­mets for its first scrim­mage of the spring ses­sion as the Bulldogs hit the mid­way point of spring ball. The Bulldogs took the field at Top Taggart Field on April 9 for the first time in front of the pub­lic this sea­son to show­case the work they’ve put in dur­ing the off­sea­son program.

All three phases of the game were on dis­play dur­ing the scrim­mage, as the team scrim­maged through sit­u­a­tional plays with the offen­sive, defen­sive and spe­cial team units all involved.

“Offensively and defen­sively, we need to crank it up to another level,” said Ferris head coach Jeff Pierce. “It’s not rocket sci­ence. To get to the next level, every­thing has to go to the next level and you’ll get there.”

After start­ing out 2010 with a blaz­ing 5–1 record out of the gates, the Bulldogs limped down the stretch with five con­sec­u­tive losses to close out the sea­son at 5–6. While an improve­ment over 2009’s 1–10 cam­paign, Ferris will look to con­tinue the upward trend in 2011 with hopes of post­ing a win­ning record for the first time since 2008.

Despite los­ing strong senior lead­er­ship with the depar­ture of play­ers like receiver Chris Wilson and line­backer Matt Ryan, Ferris will return in 2011 with a strong core of younger play­mak­ers who will be counted on to take the team to the next level.

Junior quar­ter­back Tom Schneider will be counted on to con­tinue his play­mak­ing ways after account­ing for 18 scores through the air and on the ground in 2010. Junior receiver Mike Ryan will look to bol­ster the receiver corps again after lead­ing the Bulldogs in receiv­ing yards and receiv­ing touch­downs in 2010.

The defense will look to return­ing lead­ers like sopho­more line­backer Tayo Moss to help lead a defense that was the eight-ranked defense in the GLIAC last sea­son. Junior cor­ner­back William Miles will be looked to in the sec­ondary after tal­ly­ing five inter­cep­tions in 2010. Ferris has 19 return­ing starters on both sides of the ball.

The Bulldogs will scrim­mage twice more this spring, as they will take the field again on April 16 at 1 p.m. before fin­ish­ing up the spring with the annual Crimson and Gold Spring Game on April 21 at 6 p.m. Both events will be held at Top Taggart Field.n