Day 2 coverage: Barnes carrying lessons learned into Year 2 | Analysis ($) | What stood out ($)

Purdue's two-deep on defense on the second day of spring football Wednesday included 14 underclassmen.

Only linebacker Markus Bailey and safeties Jacob Thieneman and Navon Mosley, all working with the first-team unit, have had at least one full season of starting experience.

So when co-defensive coordinator and play caller Nick Holt said he was using the spring to figure out the team's identity, it made perfect sense.

"We’ve got to get a lot of reps for the young kids because we have a lot of young guys at a lot of positions who we have to get battle-tested in a hurry," Holt said on Wednesday, "and (we've) got to stay healthy and we’ve got to find really who we are. We’ve got to find our personality, what kind of defense we’re going to be as far as schematically. We’ll work on some new things. The gist of it is going to be the same, but we’ve got to find out what we’re really good at this spring and keep guys healthy and get the young guys a lot of reps."

Holt made sure to say the unit has "a lot of work to do," which isn't surprising considering the new roles for so many players.

Six defensive linemen who accounted for about 81 percent of the game snaps last season are gone. The only returning starter (Lorenzo Neal) hasn't practiced the first two days.

That's meant a true freshman (early enrollee Jeff Marks), four redshirt freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a junior-college-transfer senior are working with the first and second teams.

The newness not just on the front but at linebacker, too, has meant a bit of a change early this spring.

"We’ve got to maybe cut back on a couple things," Holt said, "but we’ve got to have a sense of urgency of getting these guys good in a hurry. Every practice is so important. We can’t miss our opportunities. We don’t have a lot of guys out there. We’ve got to stay healthy with the kids we have. Every practice, we’ve got to really grind it out and get the most out of every rep with these guys. It’s so important.

"I like our attitude, and I like our guys. We’re just young. We have to get them caught up in a hurry."

More from Holt in the video above, including specifics on three of Purdue's redshirt cornerbacks, the sophomore linebackers, a pair of young D-linemen and where T.J. Jallow fits.

One of those young linebackers who is fighting for a starting spot, Cornel Jones, offered his thoughts on the spring, the middle linebacker job and much more, too, Wednesday:

Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook

More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2018. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.