Come Saturday, Western’s campus is going to get a good dosage of fall.

Saturday morning, the coaching staff will have a women’s clinic to give them the inside scoop to understand the game of football even better.

Then the fall routine kicks in with the Topper Walk and Tailgating, events that precede Western football games during the season.

Like what is taking place across the country at schools such as Ohio State and Florida, the Toppers are trying to build a monster around spring ball.

Junior defensive lineman Dan Cline said he remembers his first spring game.

“It’s gotten steadily better every year,” Cline said. “And more fans are coming out to it and I think switching it to a night game will help as well.”

Coach David Elson said he likes where the team is, saying that the Toppers are undefeated at 0-0 and that he’s fired up.

Sure, when it gets down to it, what will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday at Smith Stadium is nothing more than a glorified scrimmage. But for some reason, fans salivate for the opportunity to get a glance at what they will see in early September.

“I really like where our offense is and our quarterbacks,” Elson said. “Everybody is understanding what we’re doing on offense. But like I said, we still have a lot of work to do on defense.”

Unfortunately for Western fans, Saturday may not provide as good of a look as most probably hoped for.

Injuries have plagued the Toppers all spring, most notably Cline, sophomore linebacker Blake Boyd and junior quarterback David Wolke have all missed significant time.

Cline suffered a broken bone in his foot and underwent surgery, Wolke has had some minimal time on the side, but suffered an injury in the weight room and Boyd is still recovering from a knee injury.

One place Western won’t be shorthanded is at the running back position. Sophomores Tyrell Hayden, Andrew McCloud and Marell Booker, as well as freshman Bobby Rainey, and junior Stephen Willis all got multiple carries in Western’s scrimmage last weekend.

And as if there weren’t already enough names thrown into the running back hat, you can throw sophomore quarterback Brandon Smith in the mix.

You know, just as another option. As if there weren’t already enough.

Smith finished as the leading rusher on Saturday, running for 124 yards on nine carries in the mini-scrimmage.

The race for the starting quarterback may officially start on Saturday too, mostly depending on whether or not Wolke will be able to play.

Nonetheless, Elson said he wants to get away from the two-quarterback system and keep an eye on the defense too. They’ve struggled all spring but began to show considerable signs of improvement at the last scrimmage.

Junior defensive back Marcus Minor said he plans on being on the winning team.

“We’re gonna pick it up on the red-white game,” Minor said. “It’s about coming out and playing hard and playing fast and getting to the ball on defense and that’s what we plan to do.”

Reach Andrew Robinson at sports@chherald.com.