ABILENE – The 2018 ACU football season begins in earnest Thursday afternoon when the Wildcats go through their first workout of spring drills, which for the first time will be at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.Head coach's second spring training will feature 14 practices spread over 37 days as they begin preparations for the 2018 campaign, which begins Sept. 1 at Baylor. The first practice will get started at 4 p.m. Thursday and be followed by a Friday afternoon workout on the turf of the Wildcats' second-year on-campus home stadium.Spring training will conclude with the Spring Game on Friday, April 6, followed the next weekend (Saturday, April 14) by the annual Don Smith Golf Tournament at Diamondback Golf Club. Admission to the Spring Game will be free. (We will have more details on the game in the coming weeks here on acusports.com .)Dorrel's squad returns 10 starters from last year's squad (five on each side of the ball), including redshirt sophomore quarterback, who took over as the starter with three games left in the season and threw for 642 yards and seven touchdowns in two starts against Northwestern State and Sam Houston State. He missed the final game of the season at Central Arkansas after an injury against the Bearkats.The Wildcats, however, have some big holes to begin filling as they look for replacements for all-time leading tacklerat middle linebacker, wide receivers(51 catches for 542 yards and 4 TDs) and(31 catches for 307 yards and 5 TDs), and placekicker, who is among the top three in ACU history in virtually every placekicking category.Dorrel and his staff are ready to begin finding answers to those and other questions on this team as they begin practice Thursday afternoon. What he believes he will see – and what he hopes others will see – is a team that matches up more favorably to its Southland Conference opponents."The No. 1 thing I see in off-season conditioning is that we just look better," Dorrel said. "We're taller, rangier and more athletic. We look more like an NCAA Division I FCS program. Secondly, I believe we're a more cohesive team on both sides of the ball, but especially on offense. I believe the consistency we'll play with this season from the quarterback position will give us a great lift."Dorrel said he also believes he's seeing a team growing in its collective love of the process that it takes to develop into a consistent winner."Our fans will see a team that is going to play with great second effort; at least that's what we've seen in offseason workouts and conditioning," he said. "It's a team that's learning to love the daily grind of college football. We've got more guys who have bought into that and more guys that love it."Finally, the 15 junior college and Division I dropdown transfers – as well as some players who redshirted last year – have created a more competitive roster."What we've been able to do in recruiting is fill in some holes, which in turn makes us a more competitive team with more depth," Dorrel said. "More competition in practice leads to be a better competitive atmosphere when we get to Saturdays."Aside from Anthony on the offensive side of the ball, the Wildcats return leading rusherand wide receiver(27 catches for 335 yards and 2 TDs), as well as offensive linemen(who could miss some of spring ball after off-season surgery),and, whom Dorrel said is "blowing it up right now." Redshirt freshman offensive linemanhas also been impressive. Tight endalso returns after missing the entire 2017 season and Dorrel said he's "done a lot of really good things this off-season."On the defensive side, the Wildcats return safetiesand, the team's top two tacklers with 76 and 72 stops, respectively. Also returning to the defensive side of the ball will be linebacker, defensive backsandamong others, as well as defensive linemen(2017 team captain),andThe two lines are areas that will be under the microscope during spring drills, into summer workouts and through the fall because ACU's relative lack of success running ball last year (86.8 yards per game on the ground) or stopping the run (195.6 yards per game allowed)."We absolutely feel better about what we have on those two lines," Dorrel said. "We're exponentially better on both the offensive and defensive lines. We're more athletic and we believe our depth is better as well. We knew after last season that we had to make major improvements in those two areas. We have to be able to run the ball and stop the run if we want to compete in this conference."In search of a replacement for Grau, the Wildcats have four placekickers on their roster, but only sophomore-to-behas any game experience, having kicked off once during the 2017 season. No kicker on the roster has ever kicked a field goal or PAT in a college football game.– Thursday, March 1– Friday, March 2– Tuesday, March 6– Wednesday, March 7– Thursday, March 8– Friday, March 9– Monday, March 19– Wednesday, March 21– Friday, March 23– Tuesday, March 27– Wednesday, Feb. 28­– Thursday, March 29– Tuesday, April 3– Wednesday, April 4– Friday, April 6, 6 p.m.– Saturday, April 14 (Diamondback Golf Club)