Myles Harden healthy, tight ends impress and more from South Dakota football's open spring practice

South Dakota’s Spring Game wasn’t much of a game. But in its open practice Saturday in the DakotaDome, USD ran through live plays for the majority and several players stood out.

The Coyotes, returning a largely similar roster from perhaps its best Division-I season ever, didn’t have many question marks coming into the spring. But, as always, a new season brings some position battles worth watching.

South Dakota is set at the quarterback position (Carson Camp), the running back position (any of Travis Theis, Shomari Lawrence, Nate Thomas and Mike Mansaray provide a strong starter plus depth) and the offensive line (returning all five starters) on offense. But beyond that, many position groups at least require one player to take an advanced role this upcoming season.

“There were some good plays,” South Dakota head coach Bob Nielson said. “Saw some good things trying to get some younger guys a few more reps in the team stuff today.”

Most of those players had an opportunity to show their ability Saturday. Here are four takeaways from South Dakota’s final spring practice.

Defensive back Myles Harden healthy, grabs interception to end practice

It was anyone’s ball. South Dakota ran a deep route in the final play of practice and redshirt freshman wide receiver Makai Lovett wrestled with sophomore defensive back Myles Harden for position.

Lovett has been one of the most talked-about players in spring so far, a real threat to take plenty of snaps as a receiver next year. He made a nice catch over the middle earlier in practice. But this time, Harden got the better of him. He leaped up and pulled the ball down, hopping back and punting the ball away from a frenzy of defensive players who came over to celebrate.

Harden kicked the ball with his right leg, but the other one feels good, too, after an injury to his left leg ended his season last year. Around practice seven this spring, Harden started working his way back into individual drill and was healthy enough to play even with the overly-cautious approach to injuries this spring. Harden will rejoin a defensive backs unit that Nielson has been pleased with so far this spring. With the loss of safety Elijah Reed in a leadership role, Harden still expects there will be plenty in that unit who could “make plays.”

“I feel like we progressed a lot this spring,” Harden said.

Nate Thomas could miss time next season after “non-contact” injury holds him out of Spring Game

While South Dakota’s running backs displayed Saturday what made it one of the best rushing units in the Missouri Valley Football Conference last year, breakout star Nate Thomas watched from the sideline with a brace on his left leg. Thomas suffered a “non-contact” injury last week, head coach Bob Nielson said and there is already concern that he could miss significant time next fall.

“He has a knee (injury),” Nielson said. “Unfortunately, it looks like it's gonna be something that's going to require surgery. It was tough to see.”

The freshman joined USD as a walk-on a season ago and took 114 carries for 717 yards and five touchdowns. He was awarded a scholarship on his birthday after the season.

“It’s a possibility (Thomas misses next season),” Nielson said. “You want to get through spring without anybody getting hurt, and particularly a guy like Nate, who was having a great spring and, obviously, had a great fall for us.”

With no Brett Samson, tight end room is “business all the time” fighting for snaps

One of starting quarterback Carson Camp’s first passes was off-line. It was just a short pass to JJ Galbreath. Camp quickly turned to the right side of the field and snapped his wrist, getting the ball out quick but not right to Galbreath’s numbers.

It didn’t matter. Galbreath stuck out his left mitt, clamped the ball with one hand and ran the ball upfield. It was an impressive display of catching ability from Galbreath, something that doesn’t seem to be an anomaly after he made similar-type grabs during the warmups and drill portions of the live practice.

“I loved spring ball this year,” Galbreath said. “Once you actually learn (everything you’re supposed to be doing) and put it all together, it's like a whole different world.”

One of South Dakota’s biggest pass-catching losses from last year is the graduation of tight end Brett Samson. Tight end Austin Goehring was held out of the spring game due to an injury, but Nielson noted his backup tight end from a season ago who caught his fair share of passes is a “pretty good receiver, too.” But there’s still catches to be had in that room, and Galbreath made a strong impression Saturday.

Galbreath said he’s played out of the slot some, switching off with redshirt freshman tight end Matteo Bonnin, who is a “nice little shifty receiver as well.”

“It's business all the time when you're out here,” Galbreath said. “We lost (Samson) so people have to step up. There's gonna have to be people who play in big roles. So we're competing as a position group right now for who will be that person. Or people.”

Offensive line depth shaping up behind first-time captain and left tackle Alex Jensen

South Dakota has its captains for next season: linebacker Brock Mogenson, long snapper Dalton Godfrey and, for the first time in his career, starting left tackle Alex Jensen.

“I was excited to receive that recognition,” Jensen said. “Getting the leadership title is one thing, but demonstrating it and following through into the season is the bigger thing.”

Jensen has a solid foundation in the group he’s working with. South Dakota returns all five of its offensive line starters and he, Isaac Erbes and Joey Lombard make a “mixture” of the verbal leaders who are filling in for the presence vacated by Mason Scheidegger, who took on a player-coach role after he medically retired from football prior to last season.

The Coyotes offensive line made massive strides last season, and with injuries, plenty more had to take snaps in big games, too.

“We’ve been able to keep close to two-deep, which is nice,” Jensen said. “That's really important for everybody getting the reps everyday and being able to really take advantage of every opportunity you get throughout the spring.”

Follow Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Michael McCleary on Twitter @mikejmccleary.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Harden healthy, tight ends impress, more from USD football's open practice