Football season officially got underway at Sacramento State Sunday as the Hornets took the field for their first team practice. With it began a battle for playing time on a team with a strong freshman and transfer class.

Wearing helmets and shorts with no pads, the squad split up into units and ran drills for two hours in the afternoon. Head coach Marshall Sperbeck, who is entering his seventh year of service at the helm for the Hornets, said the attitude at practice was optimistic.

“[There is] a lot of learning, a lot of enthusiasm,” Sperbeck said. “Guys excited to be out here getting back in the mix, so it was good.”

After practice, Sperbeck said he is very impressed with the new crop of first-year players in the defensive secondary and there are a lot of guys in the mix for playing time. He more specifically mentioned junior college recruit Robbie Kendall and junior transfer Mike Sellers, as well as freshmen Nick Crouch and Marcus Green.

Second-year offensive coordinator Paul Peterson said the whole team is eager to put on pads and start really hitting things because each player feels they have a chance to make a difference for the Hornets.

“[All the positions] are open,” Peterson said after the team’s second practice Monday. “That’s what Coach Sperbeck says all the time. All the positions are open. And we’ve brought in quite a few new guys and so we’re throwing them all in the mix and seeing who sticks and how they mesh.”

Peterson said the quarterback position is going to be an interesting source of competition during the preseason. Junior Garrett Safron, who was the primary starter last season, will face some formidable competition heading into this year. If he does hang on to the job, the question of who will be his backup is still very much up in the air.

Safron said it was important for him to come out and impress in practice this summer to solidify his grip on the starter’s role.

“Each day is going to be a battle,” Safron said. “It’s going to be very important to grow with each day and get better in the film room, and throw with these guys and get my timing down with my playmakers.”

Sperbeck and Peterson both said they were particularly excited about freshman hurler Jihad Vercher, who is one of the most-recruited players to land at Sac State in a long time. While Vercher is a bit on the short side, being listed at 6’0”, he showed on Sunday why he’s so highly-regarded. The freshman out of Los Angeles displayed accuracy and mobility outside the pocket, making several strong throws on the run.

Peterson said he expects the competition under center to heat up as practices continue.

“I’m trying to equal out the reps as much as I can with all of them and see who kind of steps up and takes advantage,” Peterson said. “Each of them have their strengths these couple of days that I’ve seen. Now it’s minimizing mistakes for the new guys and getting in the playbooks so we can put them on the same level as the guys that have been there before. But yeah, they’re competing. They can feel it. There’s tension, but that’s good. It makes everybody better.”

Another addition to the Hornet football squad is new offensive line coach Bill Laveroni. Laveroni is veteran coach who has had stints at colleges like Vanderbilt and Utah State, and also was a member of the Seattle Seahawks coaching staff from 2002-’07.

Sperbeck said he’s known Laveroni for a long time and is excited to have him on the staff.

“It’s nice to have someone on the staff for me that I can lean on with some experience,” Sperbeck said. “And it’s good for our younger coaches to see how he does things.”

On Monday, Laveroni echoed the sentiment that every position is up for grabs. He says any one of his linemen, even the freshmen, has an equal shot at being a starter. But, he said, his bunch just wants to help the team.

“That’s the beauty about offensive linemen,” he said. “They’re a lunch pail type of guys. They don’t need their names in the press. The best ones that I’ve been around have been some of the quietest guys when we’re out in public, but when they come on the field and they turn it on they’re just monsters.”

The Hornets will continue practicing for two weeks in preparation for their first team scrimmage, which is scheduled for August 17.

Alex Grotewohl can be reached on twitter @SH_sports