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practice session. Namely, the quarterback competition. While O'Brien has stopped well short of naming a favorite or handicapping the competition in any way, he noted that the current candidates – sophomore Steven Bench, juco transfer Tyler Ferguson, and run-ons Austin Whipple and D.J. Crook – are already hard at work. "We have a very smart room, a hungry room. They're young, they listen, they ask great questions, they really want to be coached," O'Brien said. "It's going to be really fun to go out on the field and watch these guys practice. I don't feel a lot of anxiety over things like that. With this position battle, we're going to let it play out and at the end of the day, we're going to obviously have to name a starter. "I'm not into alternating quarterbacks. I'm not saying that we'll never do that, but I'm not really a big believer in that right now. So we'll let this thing play out and go into training camp and we'll see what happens. But these are young guys who are very talented guys, and it will be fun to coach them and watch them progress." O'Brien also acknowledged just how compelling many of the other position battles could be. From the running backs to the defensive line, linebackers and tight ends, O'Brien said he's looking forward to all of the different things that go into the competition for a starting spot. And, as it relates to moving forward from the thrilling conclusion to the 2012 season? O'Brien said that won't be a problem. "We won eight out of our last 10, and those were all good things. We won our last game, which was really good going into the off-season. Thirty-one seniors did a great job, but at the end of the day, we were 8-4, and we started the season 0-2. So we have a lot to improve on," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of positions that need to get better. We need to find some depth. "We have great kids who are working extremely hard who are going to do it the way we want them to do it. I think they understand that, and they're looking forward to getting out there." Practice notes • O'Brien said linebacker Nyeem Wartman would fully participate in spring practice. He also reeled off any potential personnel and injury notes that came to mind. "[Linebacker] Ben Kline can't participate in the spring because of his shoulder [inM A R C H BILL O'BRIEN "We won our last game, which was really good going into the off-season. But at the end of the day, we were 8-4 and we started 0-2. So we have a lot to improve on. We have a lot of work to do." jury]," he said. "[Tight end] Kyle Carter will be noncontact. [Safety] Stephen ObengAgyapong will be noncontact. He had a shoulder [injury]. [Tight end] Adam Breneman will be full-go in the spring, but we're really going to monitor him early on here because he's a young guy. He's coming off the knee [injury] and we just want to do right by him from a coaching standpoint. He's going to be out there. Basically, everybody else is ready to go." • Both Bench and Ferguson took the first-team reps at quarterback during the first day of practice, with Whipple and Crook splitting the second-string duties. Obviously, it's far too early to make judgements on either quarterback, though Ferguson certainly appeared comfortable, threw a nice ball and had a higher completion rate than Bench in the short time that the media were permitted to watch practice. Though the exact science of trying to evaluate quarterbacks is anything but perfect, both Bench and Ferguson appeared to be clearly ahead of the two run-on competitors in their throws. Again, O'Brien has stated definitively that he will not make a decision about the starting quarterback this spring and expects true freshman Christian Hackenberg to be in the mix for the starting job when he arrives this summer. • Defensive tackle Austin Johnson was getting first-team reps along the defensive line. 2 0 , 2 0 1 3 2 For the opening individual defensive line drill, the first unit included Deion Barnes and C.J. Olaniyan at end and DaQuan Jones and Austin Johnson at the tackle spots. The secondteam unit included Evan Schwan and Brad Bars at end, and Kyle Baublitz and Derek Dowrey at tackle. "Austin Johnson, we think has a chance to be a really, really good player and hopefully sooner rather than later, but he's had a really good off-season and comes from a great family," O'Brien said. "He's just a really good kid, and we are really glad that he's on our football team. We think that he can have a bright future. "Then we have got Derek Dowrey and Brian Gaia, two tough guys who gave us a lot of problems on the Dirty Show [scout team] last year. I remember Matt Stankiewitch last year, after one of those practices, we were sitting around just shooting the breeze and I remember him saying that Gaia and Derek Dowrey were strong guys who could hold the point of attack. And that was good coming from an All-Big Ten center. That was pretty neat." • New assistant coach Anthony Midget looked like a natural coaching the safeties. The individual portion of his safety practice session was intense, quickly paced and had everyone in the unit paying attention. Seniors Malcolm Willis and Obeng-Agyapong were still your starters, but Obeng-Agyapong is not participating in any contact this spring. Jesse Della Valle and Ryan Keiser were second string at safety, while Jake Kiley and Malik Golden were third team. • New defensive coordinator John Butler was in charge of the cornerback drills and he was his same old self. Like Midget, his drills were high-intensity, incredibly detail-oriented and he was assertive as a coach. Interestingly, Jordan Lucas and Adrian Amos ran as first-team corners. Da'Quan Jones and Jordan Smith were on the second team, and Anthony Smith, Devin Pryor and Jesse Merise ran with the third team. • Eugene Lewis looks like the real deal at wideout. He is so physically imposing and is nearly equalling the stature of Allen Robinson, who has already proven to be a physical presence. As was the case last season, many of the wide receivers are being rotated in and out equally, and with a variety of new faces – like speedy run-on DeShawn Baker – added to the mix, there will be plenty of reps to go around as the quarterbacks get to work. 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