The Alabama State University football team will open spring football practice with the first of 15 sessions on Tuesday, March 27 at 11 a.m. Spring practice will conclude with the Black and Gold Game on Saturday, April 21 at 1 p.m. at Hornet Stadium.
 
Entering his 6^th season as head coach, Reggie Barlow's Hornets are coming off a 2011 campaign in which Alabama State posted an 8-3 overall record, and a 7-2 mark in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, narrowly missing a berth in the SWAC Championship Game for the second consecutive season.
 
“I thought it was productive,” Barlow said in looking back on the 2011 campaign. “We had a lot of guys that walked away with a lot of awards, and that's always fun for the young men. Of course, the ultimate goal was to win it all and we stumbled. I've gone back and watched the Southern game over and over, trying to see what we could have done differently. They were able to get a drive on us, which eventually they scored and kept us out of the SWAC Championship Game. All in all, we'll take it. It's a lot to learn from. We have a good group of guys coming back for this season. Our theme and motto will be 'Just Finish'. We didn't think we finished the way we needed to last year and we're looking to do that this year.”
 
There is more continuity entering this year's spring football practices than a year ago. Not only is the coaching staff intact from last season, but only nine seniors were lost from the 2011 campaign.
 
“It's always a good thing when you can keep your staff in place,” Barlow said. “I feel really good about the guys we have here coaching. They do a good job. This spring, it will be back to business. We installed a new offense last year. Now, everybody's been here. The quarterback (Greg Jenkins) is back, a lot of the O-linemen are back as well as receivers. We want to play faster. That's one of the things I have on my list to talk to the team about. Offensively, we want to play fast, fast, fast, and we want to increase and get more 20+ (yard) plays. On defense, the system is in place, and we have a lot of guys coming back, so we should be good to go in both areas.