Note: Throughout Spring Football, GoJacks.com will take an in-depth look at various position groups. The second installment of the Spring Report focuses on the Jackrabbit linebackers.

Perhaps the deepest position group on the squad, the Jackrabbit linebacking corps features a number of key contributors from a year ago.

All three regular starters from a year ago return, led by leading tackler and All-America honoree Christian Rozeboom. Although the junior from Sioux Center, Iowa, is out of action this spring while recovering from offseason surgery, he is expected to back at full strength when fall camp begins. Rozeboom notched a team-high 127 tackles in 14 starts from his middle linebacker position a year ago as he was honored as a repeat first-team all-Missouri Valley Football Conference performer.

Flanking Rozeboom are senior Dalton Cox and sophomore Logan Backhaus. Cox moved into the starting lineup in October and ranked fifth on the team with 62 tackles. Backhaus earned a spot on the MVFC All-Newcomer Team after starting 11 games and tallying 55 tackles and a pair of interceptions.

Eric Kleinschmit, who started six games last season, also returns after posting 46 tackles and forcing a fumble in 2017.

Other returning linebackers include senior Jeremy Christner and sophomores Noah Urbanek and Seven Wilson. Christner, a converted running back, contributed mostly on special teams last season, while Urbanek and Wilson played both at linebacker and on special teams as true freshmen in 2017. Wilson recorded 20 tackles, with Urbanek adding 19 stops.

The Jackrabbits also regain the services of sophomore linebackers Preston Tetzlaff and Kyle Tuttle, who both missed the 2017 season due to injury.

Adding further depth is redshirt freshman Levi Brown, who was named the team’s Scout Defense Player of the Year in 2017.

Photo from www.gojacks.com.