PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) – The Arnold football team begins their spring season with a youthful roster and a quarterback position up for grabs.

“We graduated 19 seniors,” Head Coach Shawn Campbell said. “So that team was a lot of good leaders in that group of guys. This group is a little bit younger right now, and we haven’t established that leadership role. Some of them are trying to insert themselves and make it a little bit more leaders, but we’re still working on that.”

The biggest question for the Marlins this offseason is who will replace graduating senior quarterback, Seth Hernandez.

Last season’s backup, Chris Noble, certainly has the inside track to take the job but Cambell said the position is still open.

“We’re kind of starting over a little bit,” Campbell said. “Chris Noble will be a rising junior, Daniel Holley be a rising junior and Will Cotter be a rising sophomore. It’s kind of a battle for that job here in the spring. Chris had done some backup role in the past, so he’s a little more familiar. Daniel had been in the community moved back, then Will’s a rising sophomore, so he did a good job for us on the J.V. last year. So, those are the three battling for a starting job in the spring. So we’re looking to find out who’s going to come in, rise to the top, and see what happens.”

The Marlins are bringing in some veteran leadership on the coaching staff with former Franklin County head coach, Dirk Strunk, taking over as Arnold’s offensive coordinator.

Campbell said it will be great to have some extra help on the coaching staff, especially someone like Strunk with decades of experience.

“I think him bringing that knowledge of being around those teams and knowing more a little bit more than I do, he’s been really good and helping me kind of compare what we need to be doing as far as getting better each every day for who we’re playing,” Campbell said. “So, it’s been a good addition to our staff and I’m really excited to have him on that.”

With youth in several key positions and on the offensive and defensive front, Arnold’s goal this spring is simply to get better one day at a time.

“I’m not worried about winning the spring game,” Campbell said. “I’m worried about how can we perform when we participate at a high level and we execute an offense to be very disciplined on defense. And that’s our goal.”

The Marlins will host a spring jamboree with Bozeman, Rutherford and Holmes County all playing each other in a round-robin on Thursday, May 18.