The Spalding High Jaguars football coaching staff will have its collective hands full with the youthful group they’ll hit the field with this coming season, especially on offense. The coaches hope the 52 players which showed for spring practice Wednesday will have the presence of mind to be coachable this upcoming season. And the coachable part will come into play Friday at 1:30 p.m., the date of the annual Navy-Silver Scrimmage Game which will take place on the Jags’ practice field.

“We’re real young right now, especially on the offensive line. I can’t name a starting group right now. All I know is some of our lineman, like rising junior Jay Westbury, will have to play on both offensive and defensive lines,” said Jaguars offensive line coach Greg Crawford. “We’ve got a lot of sophomores and juniors and they will have to learn quickly. We’re building from the ground up.”

Crawford, who will share O-line duties with Rodney Ellerbee, said his main goal for the offensive line is to keep plugging away and “even if you mess up, be physical and block somebody.”

Spalding head football coach Nick Davis said after looking at film from the 2010 season, he decided to make some adjustments to the coaching staff. All are still in place, but defensive coordinator Ahmand Tinker will now move to offensive coordinator (the same position he held at Carver-Columbus) and Davis himself will handle the defensive coordinator duties.

For his part, Tinker said he plans to make Spalding’s offense more uptempo in 2012 than it was in 2011.

“I plan to feature a wide-open attack on offense, similar to what I did at Carver. There will be some similarities to last year, but not many,” Tinker said. “This year, there will be balls flying through the air with a mixture of ground and pound to complement that.”

Davis said the offense will be balanced this year, as it was a bit more run-oriented in 2011.

“We’re going to try and stretch the field more and you will see our quarterbacks out of the shotgun this season,” Davis said. “We’ll also try to run some screens and utilize the speed of our running backs.”

Davis also mentioned that all positions are up for grabs on offense and on defense.

“Just because we had some guys as starters on offense in 2011 doesn’t mean they’re the automatic starters next season. Every position — and I do mean every position — is open. We’re constantly evaluating everything and if someone comes in and beats out a starter from 2011, then that’s who we will play,” Davis said. “We are monitoring these guys in all facets, from the classroom to the weight room, to see who we can trust to put on the field.”

One Jags player who may have the coaching staff’s trust will be rising senior linebacker Jevaris Jones, who will have a role on offense next year at tight end. Last year, Jones got carries at fullback and he might get fullback carries again in 2012.

“The coaches said they really want to see me at tight end, with some fullback thrown in if necessary,” Jones said. “At tight end, I’ll definitely have to block. I’m ready to do that.”