The Alabama State football team got back to practice Sunday night at Hornet Stadium.
The Hornets, coming off Thursday's 24-21 home loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, were off Friday and Saturday before returning to work Sunday night.
“Practice was good,” head coach
Reggie Barlow said. “It was an extra day for us to get some work it, since we played early in the week. The guys were able to get away from things for a few days, but it was a solid practice.”
After having several days to review the game film, several things jumped out at Barlow.
“Defensively, we're still not stopping the run,” Barlow said, as UAPB gained 246 yards on the ground. “Offensively, there's some opportunities we've got to take advantage of in the passing game as well as in the running game. Arkansas-Pine Bluff is a good team. We knew that coming in, but we didn't do what we needed to do. We had a lot of penalties, particularly personal foul penalties, which we have to clean up.”
The Hornets nearly rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in the final five+ minutes. Alabama State drove 69 yards in less than two minutes to cut the deficit to three. The defense, which allowed only 15 yards in the final 15 minutes, forced a three-and-out to get the ball back to the offense with just over two minutes to play. Alabama State drove into field goal range, but a game-tying field goal was wide right.
“There were a lot of positives in the game,” Barlow said. “I thought some individuals played extremely well.
Jimmy Daniels played lights out and was all over the field.
Willie Roller did a good on special teams, and on offense it was good to see
T.C. McWilliams make some big catches towards the end and making plays. Our offense driving the ball down the field at the end to give us a chance was positive. There are some things to take away from the game, but we have some things we have to clean up and hopefully we'll have that done by Saturday.”
The Hornets will play at Alcorn State Saturday at 2 p.m. (WVAS 90.7 FM) and return to practice Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 3 p.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m.
