Lots of spring previews are going to be coming your way. Beware what you read. It's hard to get a gauge of who is playing well when the team is playing against each other. We'll give you our perspective good and bad and leave it unfiltered. If you want unbridled optimism this probably isn't your series of previews. If you want to be nega-Coug then this isn't for you either. Instead we'll bring you what we think is objective truth on each unit going into Spring Practice. Then when practice kicks off we'll bring you as much insight we can from our guys that will be observing most of the practices and talking to various people connected to the program.

We'll try to do our preview a touch differently. We'll cover on what to watch for, what you should be freaked out if it happens, and what you should hope will happen for each unit. We'll start out with wide receivers.

Overview: The unit is young and without much depth. There is talent there but the group still lacks a gamebreaker at this point. The loss of Kevin Norrell in the offseason was a big blow to our receiver depth and Norrell along with Johnny Forzani were probably our most likely candidates to serve as that constant threat to take a catch to the house.

What to watch for: The continuing development of Gino Simone and Jared Karstetter. These two guys represent the mix of youth and talent that we hope to see more of in the coming years. They have the potential to be breakout players for us this coming season if they've worked hard since Apple Cup. It will be important to monitor how they progress over the Spring.

What you should pray you don't read about: Any injuries this Spring to Gino Simone, Jared Karstetter, Johnny Forzani, Daniel  Blackledge, or Jeffrey Solomon. After those five our depth and talent drops off a cliff. You'll read a lot of articles about the incoming recruits and how a couple of them will add immediate depth. Depending on a true freshmen receiver to play and play well doesn't match-up very well with reality. I'm sure Marquess Wilson and Bobby Ratliff will be great in time but we should hope the guys in the system stay healthy if we want to see quality play this Fall.

What to hope for coming out of Spring ball: That no walk-on's wound up taking reps from our scholarship players because of health or because they were "performing" better. More often than not, if you see that sort of walk-on situation it's more an indication of the scholarship players poor play than the walk-on becoming a quality player that can compete with other Pac-10 players. So, let's hope the Big Five make it out of the Spring healthy and improved.

The wide receivers have some talent that now has quality playing time under their belts as well. We should definitely expect improvement over last season but I wouldn't anticipate a quantum leap forward unless one of the guys turns out to be an all Pac-10 type of player this next season. It's not unreasonable to hope that Karstetter, Simone, or Forzani could make it happen....I just wouldn't bank on it. I'm sure we would all be happy with consistent route running, steady hands, and the occassional big play after suffering through the past two seasons.

Up next, the Running Backs.

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