PonyFans.com: You only lose one senior off last year’s line, but that one senior was your starting center, Mitch Enright. What are you going to miss most with Mitch not out there?

Klemm said left tackle Kelvin Beachum, Jr., is a dedicated student of the game who the Ponies' younger linemen can emulate (photo by Travis Johnston).

Adrian Klemm: Mitch is just really mature, and obviously very intelligent, so there were some times when the guys would be coming off the field and sitting on the bench, and I could be explaining something and not everybody would get it. But as long as Mitch gets it, it’s like having another voice out there on the field. It was like having me out there on the field with the guys. It was like having another assistant coach out there. He’s just really mature, and a good leader — he wasn’t very vocal … just in terms of his actions. He made my job, as a first-year coach, a lot easier. Obviously, he had played a lot of games here at SMU, so he had seen a lot, so when I told him things, he could understand it and apply it on the field. He just made things a lot easier.

PonyFans.com: You’re going into spring workouts with only nine healthy players. Have you ever gone into a practice session, either as a player or a coach, with a group that thin?

Klemm: We had some times last year when we were really thin. Bryce (Tennison) played almost the entire season with a pulled abdomen — that’s fully healed, but he still has some pain at times — and then he had the shoulder injury which he just had surgery for, and now the foot. But he played the whole season with that abdomen strain, and I just took reps off of him during practice.

J.T. Brooks had a knee injury in (preseason) camp that made him miss a couple of weeks, and we knew that after the season he was going to have to have surgery, so he really didn’t practice much all year long. Mitch was the same way — he had an ankle injury that bothered him just about all year, so Blake (McJunkin) took all his reps in practice. So we had to make some adjustments, in terms of how much these guys could practice. We had to make sure they could go on Saturdays.

So what we’re doing this spring isn’t that much different than what we did during the season, except we have a bunch of younger guys who will be in there getting a lot of reps. There’s going to be a lot of learning on the go.

PonyFans.com: At the end of the year, J.T. Brooks was playing very well (Sporting News named him to its “All-Bowl Season Team”), but like you said, he played all season on one good knee. How good can he be when he’s fully healthy?

Klemm: He can be good — really good. If you look at him over the course of the last year, his body chemistry has really changed. His face may be a little bit chubby still, but around his waist, he has some abs now. He’s pretty impressive-looking. Even after his surgery, he has been able to keep his strength up.

Klemm said right tackle J.T. Brooks' stronger physique is a result of his increased dedication to the game (photo by Travis Johnston).

As these guys get a little bit older and more mature, they start to take their diet a little more serious, and take their workouts a little more serious. They’re more dedicated, and they’re starting to become students of the game. (Kelvin) Beachum, in that regard, has matured faster than everyone else, in terms of taking it serious. That’s just the way he is. I have to tell him to take breaks — he wanted to come in here and watch film all throughout Christmas break, and I had to tell him, “you need to take some time off and go home.” But that’s how he is, and now some of the other guys are following that lead. So now you have some young guys, like Jordan Favreau — he’s a young guy that’s raw, but just has unlimited potential, and it’s just a matter of when things click for him, in terms of football maturity, and he’s really going to blossom. He has a great future ahead of him.

PonyFans.com: There has been talk that Tennison will move to center in the fall, but with his injury forcing him out of spring workouts, is that still the plan?

Klemm: Yeah, Bryce will be our starting center to start off, and that will be his position to lose. He comes in here and we meet. We talk about a number of things, but whether he’s a guard or a center, he’s already an interior lineman, so a lot of the calls are the same. So even though he’s not physically out there working, he’ll stand next to me every day in practice. He comes in here when “Beach” and J.T. and the other guys are in here watching film, so it’s like he’s out there doing it — he’s just not physically out there.

Blake (McJunkin) is my backup center, but that just depends on how Bryce comes along. It’s good to know I have another guy there who knows the position and can play if we need him to. We’ll also give Blake a chance to play right guard — there will be four or five guards competing for that position: Blake, Kelly Turner, Bryan Collins, Ben Gottschalk and Jordan Favreau. I’m just going to let them roll through, and it will sort itself out. If I move Blake to guard, Ashton (Duhe) will be at center, with Bryce and Ben Hughes.

It may be the first time since this staff has been here that we’ll have some real, legitimate competition for spots. The right and left tackle positions are the only ones that are sort of set in stone. The interior spots could have competition. Jordan Favreau will probably work both sides, so he’ll push Josh (LeRibeus) at left guard, too. Ben Gottschalk may work both sides, too.

Klemm said left guard Josh LeRibeus is among the team's most athletic offensive linemen (photo by Travis Johnston).

The way I look at it is, I just recruit tackles, and the best five are going to be out there, and if one of them is not used to playing center, I’m going to teach him how to play center. But the best five are going to be out there. We have a unique blocking scheme, and it’s almost like you have guys on an island at different points in the protections. Everybody is asked to do the same thing, so it’s just a matter of them doing what they’re taught to do. I like big, aggressive guys that are really physical, can run … heavy-handed finishers. I want to wear teams down. That’s why I want to increase the length of the group over the next couple of years — get guys with good length, good knee-bend … physical. We don’t face a lot of teams that are really physically imposing, but when we played East Carolina, they were 6-5, 300 all across their (defensive) line. That’s when you really see our lack of size, but we’re getting there. Beachum is around 300. Kelly Turner is super-strong. J.T. is kind of a prototypical tackle now. Josh LeRibeus has the size — he needs to stay on his conditioning, or that’s where he can have some problems … he can wear down. I’d like him to be in the 330 range. He’s a pretty good player now — he’s one of our most athletic linemen. You should see him play racquetball. He spins around, jumps for high balls — he’s a really impressive athlete. But I think if he can stay around 330, he could be a really dynamic player. You’d be shocked to see some of the things he can do, athletically, and if he can stay at the right weight, he can be a really good player.

PonyFans.com: At the beginning of last season, Bryan Collins was a freshman who you said had some work to do on his conditioning, but then with J.T.’s knee injury, Collins was in the game in the first week. How has he progressed?

Klemm: He still has some conditioning issues, and you can quote that. He has some conditioning issues, and until he gets that taken care of, he won’t become the type of player he’s capable of being.

PonyFans.com: One guy who got a little lost in the shuffle last year was Josh Emshoff. What’s his status now?

Klemm: He had some back issues, he had surgery, and he has worked tremendously hard to get back on the field. He’s in the best shape he has been in since he has been here. His confidence and his strength have gone up, and I’m excited to see if he can improve like I’d like him to.

A lot of those guys, whether it’s Christian Miller, Ben Hughes, Blake McJunkin, Jordan Favreau, Josh Emshoff … all of those guys are going to get a great opportunity to take a lot of reps and get a lot of individual attention that they might not get if everybody was healthy, so this is a great chance for those guys, and I’m looking forward to seeing if they take advantage of it.