The Spring League Kicked Off its Fall Version Yesterday
Fox Sports One will televise 7 games from Oct. 27 thru Nov. 18
October 27, 2020; San Antonio, Texas – The Spring League (TSL) will play a 5-week season with weekly games between the 6-team league scheduled to be played at the Alamodome culminating in the TSL’s 1st Championship Game scheduled for around Dec. 1st. Like their last minicamp/scrimmage held in Denver in July, which was successful in not having any Covid outbreaks, The Spring League plans to practice and play “in a bubble” in San Antonio over the next five weeks. Aimed at professional athletes but not paying a salary or expenses, The Spring League has been around with its minicamp/scrimmage versions since 2017. The league’s goal is to “serve as an instructional league and showcase for professional football talent,” and this will be the league’s first attempt at a multiple-team/multible-game season that will be televised. All of the six TSL teams have rosters containing at least 34 players.
Four ProCanes are listed on TSL rosters: DE/LB David Gilbert (Aviators #92), DB Jhavonte Dean (Blues #29), DL Chigozie Nnoruka (Conquerors #99) and LS Paul Kelly (Generals #59). Gilbert, who came to Miami as a grad transfer from Wisconsin, was the only ProCane who participated in The Spring League’s Minicamp in Denver in July. Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tennessee Titans back in 2014, Gilbert (6’4″ 262) was cut in camp by the Titans, but then played from 2015-18 in various arena leagues. A JUCO transfer to Miami, Dean (6’2″ 185) went undrafted in 2019 but nevertheless spent time in camp with the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, before landing on the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders PS on Sept. 23. Although he spent the remainder of the 2019 season on the Roughriders PS, Dean wasn’t resigned. Signed next by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Dean was waived by Winnipeg on Sept. 4, 2020 after the CFL cancelled its season. A grad transfer to Miami from UCLA who had earlier played at a JUCO, the 22-year-old Nnoruka (6’2″ 301) went undrafted in 2020. With JUCO experience at OG as well as BCS experience at DT/DE, Nnoruka apparently has had no NFL or CFL tryouts so far in 2020. Kelly (6’1″ 262) is believed to be the first Hurricane who played exclusively at long-snapper to turn pro when he participated in the AAF preseason with the Orlando Apollos in 2019. Also in the XFL Draft Pool in 2020 where he went unselected, Kelly came to Miami as a DL transfer from John Carroll University in Ohio, then played extensively at the U as a walk-on LS in 2012-13, before becoming a grad transfer to Nebraska when the Cornhuskers offered him a scholarship to play LS in his final college season of 2014.
In the 2017 version of The Spring League, DL Calvin Heurtelou and TE Beau Sandland were rewarded for their participation in TSL by going to NFL minicamps with the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals, respectively, although neither actually made the team for the 2017 season. In 2018, then-NFL-veteran TE Chase Ford went to TSL’s spring session, but received no offers post-participation. In 2019, QB Kevin Olsen played in the TSL, but he never received any pro offers either. Of note, RB/FB Trayone Gray (Toronto Argonauts) and QB Vincent Testaverde Jr. (British Columbia Lions), who were Class of 2019 undrafted free agents like Jhavonte Dean, still remain on official CFL team rosters and may return for the 2021 CFL season with their respective teams.
