The Alabama State football team continued to prepare for this week's showdown in the State Farm Magic City Classic with a physical Tuesday night practice at Hornet Stadium.
The Hornets (4-3, 4-2) will face Alabama A&M (6-1, 5-1) for the 76
th time overall and 71
st in the Classic at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at historic Legion Field. The game will be broadcast live on WVAS 90.7 FM, video streamed live on ESPN3.com, and televised tape delayed on ESPNU at 9:30 p.m. CT.
Both sides of the ball were extremely physical at practice, leading to a spirited effort in all phases of practice.
“Practice was fun-filled with a lot of enthusiasm,” head coach
Reggie Barlow said. “It was a typical Tuesday, a big installation night for us. The players had great energy tonight.”
Among the similarities between the teams, offensively Alabama State (32.9 points per game) and Alabama A&M (28.3 ppg) rank 1-2 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in scoring offense. And while the Bulldogs have been more effective in the passing game this season (ranking third averaging 194.3 yards per game), the bread and butter of the Alabama A&M attack continues to be their running game.
“They want to run the ball,” Barlow said. “In the games in which they passed the ball well, there were some opportunities there. But (RB Kaderius) Lacey is the straw that stirs the offense for them. We know he's a solid running back. He's going to run it hard. He's a big back, and we have to be ready for it.”
Perhaps as surprising as the Alabama A&M passing attack is the running game of Alabama State which has become the strength of the offense. Averaging nearly 190 yards on the ground per game, the Hornets have rushed for 22 of their 29 touchdowns scored this season. In the last three games, the Hornets are averaging more than 44 points and 235 rushing yards per game.
“We know we're going to have to score to have an opportunity to win,” Barlow said. “A part of the success we need to have is going to be our running game. We have three solid guys (
Isaiah Crowell,
Malcolm Cyrus, Quendarius McKibbon) that we feel good about. We just have to give them the opportunity to make plays. We want to be able to run it, and in the passing game, we have guys we feel that can make plays. Hopefully we can be real balanced, and have a good combination of both.”
Alabama State will practice Wednesday at 3 p.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m.
