ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Now that spring football is over and several schools have adjourned for the summer, several coaches are crossing their fingers and hoping that what they taught their teams during the spring session carries on through the summer.

This is a crucial time for any football team, especially teams with several questions still lingering heading into fall camp. And since coaches can't be involved in summer workouts, it's up to the players to decide how badly they want to get better.

Here's a look at a few schools that have some summer schooling to do before they're ready to face the 2009 season.

Notre Dame -- Expectations are high for the Irish and a lot of the success will depend on whether the running game and offensive line can continue to progress through the summer. Both areas have been criticized each of the past two seasons and with new coaches at both positions, there's a lot to absorb and work on as they head into the fall.

San Diego State -- The Aztecs have a couple areas of concern, but mainly a rushing offense that hasn't been productive in quite some time. Unfortunately for head coach Brady Hoke and his staff, no one came out of spring as a clear leader in the running back race. Atiyyah Henderson and juniors Brandon Sullivan and Davon Brown combined to average 2.8 yards in the spring game. Hoke can only hope something clicks in the summer while the players are evaluating themselves.

Wyoming -- Picking up Dave Christensen's new spread offense is not easy, and putting it to work against a defense such as Texas is going to be even tougher. Even though the Cowboys were pleased with their progress in the spring, they have a long way to go to be competitive in an offense that took Missouri more than two seasons to master. Things will be even more hectic once the recruits come in and the learning process has to start again.

North Texas -- There's not much wrong with the Mean Green offense, but the defense has been atrocious the last couple of years and needs to find a way to shore up and help the Mean Green win games. Not sure if it's the personnel or the coaching, but this summer the defense needs to decide if it's going to do the right things to get better or allow the coaching staff to take the fall for ineffectiveness.

Kent State -- The Golden Flashes have yet to find a quarterback to replace Julian Edelman, who led the team in both passing and rushing. Both Giorgio Morgan and Anthony Magazu were completely ineffective in a spring game that finished 3-0, the lowest scoring spring game among all the non-BCS schools and perhaps the country. Kent State looks solid in a lot of places, but if the quarterbacks can't get better during 7-on-7 drills this summer, the Golden Flashes will have a lackluster season.