MONTGOMERY—The Alabama State University Hornets added another piece of equipment to their practice repertoire with the addition of the shoulder pads at tonight's practice.  The Hornets continue their conditioning preparation as the two-a-days will begin on Monday.

“This is the first day we can get in some pads,” head coach Reggie Barlow said.  “It will be good to see how the players react to an extra set of gear as practice goes on.”

The coaching staff once again put a lot of emphasis on special teams play early in the practice session.

“We really want to work a lot on our special teams early in the preseason sessions,” Barlow said.  “We worked on adding our kickoff coverage and punt coverage, and will continue to work on that all during the preseason workouts.”

The Hornets offense worked on a lot of different third down plays with different distances in tonight's practice.

“We wanted to let our offense work in some situational practices in the session, so we spent a few periods working on third down plays with different first down yardage,” Barlow added.  “We also wanted to continue working on our running game.  We ran a lot of inside run drills along with some isolation running plays.”

Even though it is early in practice several players are beginning to catch the coach's attention.  Sophomore wide receiver T.C. McWilliams has had a solid first few days of practice.  McWilliams played in 10 games last season as a freshman and averaged 14.3 yards per reception on 10 catches.  He is looking to work his way into the starting rotation this season.

“T.C. McWilliams has come into camp and has been very consistent for us,” Barlow said.  “He has come into camp in good shape and has shown tremendous improvement from last year.”

Changing the practice time has worked well for the Hornets as temperatures have cooled off enough to allow the players to get a lot of work in.  Saturday's session will once again be in the evening beginning at 7:30 p.m.

-Hornets-