‘"Once they said they weren’t re-signing Gabe Northern, that gave me great confidence to work even harder to attain the starting job," said Newman, who was active for only four games last year with most of his playing time coming on special teams. "I spent more time up here in the off-season, worked out and ran and I feel like I prepared myself great." So far, there’s no evidence to the contrary. "He wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think he could play," linebackers coach Chuck Lester said.’