UAlbany Football: Jared Verse attends spring game as defense dazzles

ALBANY, NY—Friday night featured the annual spring game for the UAlbany Great Danes football team under interim head coach Jared Ambrose. And, included in the festivities (and to the surprise of many fans) was the appearance of Los Angeles Rams star (and 2024 Defensive Player of the Year) Jared Verse. And in that sense, it’s almost fitting that the defense put together a performance to admire in the spring contest.

With the Great Danes losing starting quarterback Van Weber to a knee injury, it was Aidan Semo who took the primary reps for UAlbany. And while the defense had plenty of success, the offense saw some of their own in the session.

With that in mind, here are my notes from the UAlbany spring game from Friday night.

Defense shows out in UAlbany Spring Game

With Jared Verse in attendance, the defensive line of the Great Danes looked fantastic rushing the passer. Whether it was Shawan Lewis, Ibrahim Sanogo, or Matthew Obiagu, I actually lost track at how many times they sacked the quarterback throughout the duration of the spring game. Not only were they able to contribute to multiple sacks, but they were also dominant as run-stoppers, too. If the spring game was any indication of how the regular season may play out, the Great Danes defensive front should cause problems within the FCS.

While those three were the primary players who jumped off the page, multiple defenders made good reads throughout the practice and played their gap assignments well. That included freshmen linebackers Troy Berschwinger and Ziah Barry, and sophomore defensive lineman Neco Eberhardt.

However, the highlight of the day for the defense was the scoop and score from defensive back Thomas Joe-Kamara.

And there’s a fumble! DB Thomas Joe-Kamara takes the scoop, and gets the score!@UAlbanyFootball | #UAUKNOW pic.twitter.com/teIeZOXO47

— Thomas Christopher (@ThomasCP_NFL) May 2, 2025

Also worth noting was a leaping interception on a screen by junior linebacker Chris Gales.

In all, it was a great showing for the Albany defense at the spring game.

Offensive standouts

While the offense did have their struggles, there were multiple players who performed well during the session. The two most notable, in my opinion, was sophomore running back Griffin Woodell and graduate transfer Kylen Austin.

Woodell looked extremely smooth running the football, with multiple big gains. Considering how stout the defense looked against the run, his success was extremely impressive to see. Woodell’s goal is to stay healthy in 2025, after suffering injuries early in his collegiate career. Yet, if he’s able to stay healthy, Woodell should be the primary running back on early downs for the Great Danes. I would have liked to see more of him in pass protection situations, but beggars can’t be choosers in the spring.

At receiver, the most notable player was Austin, the Liberty transfer. The receiver was used inside, outside, and as a returner – and did not disappoint. While adding moves to create leverage on his stems could make him an elite playmaker, he has the skillset to get open consistently. Austin was open multiple times in the spring game, and showed great leverage on an outside dig for his first touchdown of the game. His second touchdown came on an underthrown pass where Austin showed great body awareness and soft hands to bring in the catch.

Graduate transfer Jasiah Barron also showed great separation skills throughout the day, but had issues securing his targets.

What needs to be improved?

As always, when I talk about concerns, it must be taken with the understanding that we are only in spring – and a lot can change and develop by the time the regular season starts. With that said, there are some concerns on display.

Processing speed

While I mentioned that the defense did have a standout day, some of that was in part due to the difficulty processing the field by the quarterbacks. At times the quarterback would target the opposite side the concept was meant for. Other times, they were unable to read the field which led to coverage sacks.

Arm strength and ball placement could also be an issue going forward. However, I believe at this point in the season that is more due to timing and other issues than anything significant – yet.

Offensive trenches

When one side of the ball is having a lot of success, there’s always two questions that arise. That is, are they really that good, or is the other side really that bad?

Now, spring ball is more about teaching technique, the playbook, and making sure players are doing their job. During some rushing concepts, the Albany line looked great and opened up some big holes for their running backs. Other times, they really struggled. This was especially true during pass protection, but part of that could be the aforementioned processing issues.

Schools outside of the P4 in the FBS will always struggle to put together truly elite offensive lines. That’s just the way things are in the current world of football. However, there are some pieces on the Great Danes that could make this a formidable unit if everything clicks.

Kicking woes

The biggest need for improvement (that’s at every level of college football) was the kicking. Extra points were missed, kickoffs were sent out of bounds, and punts were erratic. In that regard, there’s generally very little a coach can do to improve that. And with how hit-or-miss kickers can be in college football, this may be an issue that continues throughout the season (like California dealt with last season).

Other notes

• Running backs Alex Jreige and Joey Koch had some good runs throughout the UAlbany spring game. The Great Danes RB room looks good.
• OL Emmit Harris helped create some good holes in the run game. He also was consistently asking for advice from the coaches. It’s what you like to see from a player in spring.
• The aforementioned Austin and WR Caden Burti were off on the side running sprints later in the session. Hard to tell if that was by design, punishment, or something else.
• Head coach Jared Ambrose said he will be targeting quarterbacks in the transfer portal.
• Tight end Nick Petrillo made an incredible leaping catch in traffic blanketed by defenders. Love to see that kind of effort from your tight ends.