BLOOMINGTON - Training camp is still a little over a month and a half away, but Bloomington Extreme coach Ted Schmitz nearly has his 45-man preseason roster set.

The Extreme will have a mini-camp Feb. 10 at Illinois Wesleyan before a week of training camp starts March 9 at Illinois State. Bloomington has a bye the first week of the United Indoor Football season, so its first game is not until March 30.

The following is a synopsis of the Extreme's offseason, including comments from Schmitz taken from a Jan. 17 interview of the coach by pantagraph.com. To listen to a podcast of the interview, click here.

Offense

The biggest news of the offseason is the signing of former University of Illinois running back Rocky Harvey. Harvey, who played for Fort Wayne last season, finished third in the UIF with 633 yards, despite missing six games. He scored 13 touchdowns on the ground, and passed for four more.

"He's been a proven back in this league," Schmitz said. "I think (his signing) will help us with the recruiting of University of Illinois players in the future. … I think it will help us attendance-wise."

Schmitz also said the addition of Harvey will allow the Extreme to be more versatile on offense.

"We're hoping to run some two-back stuff," Schmitz said. "We will motion Rocky out as a third receiver because he was a pretty good receiver in college. Fort Wayne didn't do a lot of that with him, but we think he will be a multipurpose player for us."

With Harvey in the fold, there will be a shift in duties for James Fuller, Bloomington's leading rusher and co-offensive MVP last year. He's expected to see his share of time in the backfield, but could be playing on the other side of the ball as well.

"Last year I worked him a little bit at linebacker early in camp, and I'd like to take another look at him there," Schmitz said. "James will be able to play some running back. He can play some linebacker for us, and we love to roll defensive line so if he can play some defensive end at his size we can roll him in there also. He's just got to be willing to play all those things, and if he does he'll get to play quite a bit."

Eric Powell, who previously played for the Peoria Rough Riders, was the only other running back on the roster as of January 17.

Two of the more recognizable names returning are former Illinois State quarterback Dusty Burk and ex-Illini kicker Peter Christofilakos, giving the Extreme continuity at two key positions. They were among the first players Bloomington resigned for the upcoming season.

"I think Peter was the best kicker in the league. … I know the guy from Evansville (Ton-Ton Luzayadio) ended up getting the kicker of the league (award)," Schmitz said. "When we went over there Peter out kicked him.

"Dusty is as good as any quarterback in this league and will get better as time goes on.

Hopefully - knock on wood - he will be healthy for the whole season. We missed him quite a bit last year when he was out"

Quarterbacks Kenton Carr, who performed well after Burk got hurt midway through the inaugural season, and B.J. McCaslin are also back.

Another signal-caller Schmitz hopes to have in camp is former Illinois Wesleyan quarterback Tom Kudyba. He started one game for the Extreme immediately after Burk's injury but left the team to play overseas.

"(Kudyba) had an outstanding game for us. Then he went over to Finland and played, and had a real good year," Schmitz said. "He has indicated that he would like to come back. If he doesn't, we will have to take a look at some other people.

Depth at receiver should not be the problem it was at times for Bloomington a year ago. Several top performers return and the team has made some key moves at the position.

"We think we've got some outstanding people (at WR)," Schmitz said. "I think we're going to have a real good, competitive camp."

Glenn Johnson and Dwayne Smith, who both missed a significant amount of time last year but were very productive when they were on the field, are back as the likely No. 1 and No. 2 receivers. Reggie Gray, who was brought in after Johnson and Smith went down, heads into camp as the third starter.

"About midseason, we went to Omaha and won … and we thought we could challenge anybody in this league. Then the next game we lost all three starting wide receivers in one quarter," Schmitz said. "Glenn Johnson at that time was the leading receiver in the league. Dwayne Smith was pretty close to him."

Battling those three for playing time and spots on the roster will be holdovers Marcus Hayden and Patrick Hunter, along with James Walton and Shatone Powers.

Walton was a teammate of Burk's at Truman State. Powers holds the Illinois High School Association record for most passes caught in a season. He set the record with 117 receptions in 2001 at Riverside-Brookfield High School.

The offensive line is the position most in flux for Bloomington.

J.D. Sheldon and Ken Sandor will not be back. Sheldon has signed with the Chicago Slaughter of the CIFL and Sandor could join him. Schmitz said both players had to travel a long distance to play for the Extreme - Sheldon from Milwaukee and Sandor from the northern edge of Chicago.

"(Sandor) and J.D. would drive together, but they'd get home at two in the morning and have to get up at five to go to work. It was just too much," Schmitz said. "We'll miss those guys. They were great guys."

With Sheldon and Sandor gone, that leaves Mike Rudicil and Nick Ruud as the only returning offensive lineman to compete with four newcomers: Dennis Bailey, Jim Davis, Adam Grubbs and Jamarkus Gorman. The team has some open spots on the 45-man preseason roster that could be filled by lineman before camp starts.

Defense

Quince Holman was a huge addition for the Extreme during the 2006 season. The defensive lineman is currently planning to play for Bloomington, but that could change.

Schmitz said the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League had said they planned to sign Holman in September, but that did not happen.

"I've called them back; they did not call me back for some reason. I think what happened is they won the Grey Cup and decided to stand pat," Schmitz said. "But there are some other teams in the Canadian league that are looking at him, and one of them happens to be the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who I used to work for.

"So we may still lose him. If we don't, boy, he's as good as anybody in the league. … But we still hope to have him move on, to be honest, if he's best suited for that."

Eric Johnson, who tied Holman for the team lead with five sacks, Chris Hummel and Marty Wilson also return on the defensive line. The newcomers are nose tackle Randall Guzman and defensive end Evan Triggs. Guzman played for Fort Wayne in 2006 and Triggs played for the Freedom in 2005.

"The more of those guys (defensive linemen) we can keep on the 30-man the better, but if they're not starting they might not want to stay," Schmitz said. "So, we are going to have to make some real hard decisions at that position.

"We hope to have that kind of competition all over the team."

One top defender who is not returning is Bloomington's defensive MVP Winston Taylor. The former U of I linebacker has signed with the Springfield Stallions of the Continental Indoor Football League. Schmitz said family considerations played into Taylor's decision to leave the club.

"I gave him my blessing, as long as it was a family decision," Schmitz said. "He's working in Springfield in the governor's office. Coach (Jered) Hooker on our staff was able to get him that job and it's a good job and he's pretty well set down there at least for the next four years. It kind of worked better for him, not only for his family but for his job as well."

Taylor led the Extreme with 106 tackles and 16.5 tackles for a loss. Players currently on the roster who are expected to fill the void at linebacker are Jason Hutton and Calvin Jones. Schmitz said the team will try to sign one more at that position before training camp.

The Extreme has numerous options in the defensive backfield. Players who remain from last season are Dion Brown, Lamar Baker and Sam Yeargin. Also on the roster are Brian Colar, Dorian Pitts, Kareem Burnes, Terrance Turner, Mike Crumpler, Terrill Mayberry and Preston Glover.

Colar played in three games for the Rock River Raptors last year. Pitts was a four-year letterman at Texas Tech. Burnes played for the University of Kansas. Turner was a member of the Peoria Rough Riders last season. Schmitz said Crumpler and Mayberry came recommended by former ISU coaching staff member John Bower, who coached the two at Bowling Green State University. Glover, a BHS grad, was signed after an open tryout in mid-December. He also played at Quincy University.

Coaching staff

The Extreme coaching staff remains mostly intact, as only offensive coordinator Mike Murray will not return. Murray, who was a part-time coach with Illinois Wesleyan, has moved up to full-time with the Titans.

To replace Murray, Schmitz promoted John McIntyre from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator. Schmitz said he has a verbal commitment from part-time IWU coach Mike Goodwin to be the new offensive line coach.

Terry McCombs will once again be the defensive coordinator, while Jered Hooker coaches the special teams and Frank West handles the defensive backs.

The Extreme experienced quite a bit of turnover on the roster as the 2006 season progressed, a lot of which was caused by injuries. Schmitz said cupboard got so bare the team had nearly run out of people to sign and had to start looking at backups from Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan.

While Schmitz hopes to avoid having to use as many players as a year ago, the team is using the Indoor Football Scouting Bureau run by Ken Robinson, who Schmitz called essentially his "personnel director," to make the process a little easier.

"If we lost three receivers in one game - and we didn't have anybody here to sign - we would call him, and he would send us two or three or four receivers, whatever we would need for a nominal fee. It's really a pretty good deal," Schmitz said.

The service has even benefited Bloomington this offseason.

"If I get a call from someone I think really looks good, he'll send me a bio on the guy. They got a picture of him and all of his test scores from what they call NFL-type testing, and I know from doing a lot of scouting for the Canadian league I can find out right now whether the guy is a good player or not. It's helped us a great deal."

With a year to learn the ins and outs of the UIF, the Extreme plan to have a different look on offense. The league turned out to rely much more on the run than the Bloomington coaching staff expected.

"Going into last year we were a run-and-gun team. We were going to throw the football and everything else was just our blocking even with the backs. We were not going to run the ball that much," Schmitz said. "We will run the ball a lot more this year. I think we learned that last year we needed to run, depending on what the defense gives you.

"We are much more prepared as we were a year ago as a staff."