The Alabama State football team had the first of its two Friday practices this morning at Hornet Stadium and will return to practice later today at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, ASU will scrimmage at 8 a.m. and then host the Central Alabama Youth Football League event. 

“Rather than practice tonight and tax the players further, we moved practice up this afternoon,” head coach Reggie Barlow said. “We'll be in helmets and go through some specifics and get them focused on some of the things we'll do for our scrimmage tomorrow.” 

Alabama State is slated to run approximately 50 plays in Saturday's scrimmage, the first of the 2011 preseason. 

“It will be our normal offense-vs.-defense format,” Barlow said. “We'll spot the ball on the 20-yard line and go from there. Our offense is an up-tempo, no-huddle, on-the-ball type of system. It will be good conditioning for both sides of the ball. We'll also work some specific situations if they don't come up during the scrimmage.” 

Following Saturday's scrimmage, the Hornets will host the Central Alabama Youth Football League's Family and Friends Day. 

“I'm looking forward to the event,” Barlow said. “The league is a rising group of kids and a really good organization. Whenever you can get 500-1,000 kids on your campus and allow them to have that experience on campus, you never know how many of them will grow up and want to become Hornets.”  

-HORNETS-