MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Alabama State moved their seventh practice of the spring to a 6 a.m. workout this morning. They had some team meetings set for the early afternoon and also to get their work in before the bad weather scheduled to move into the Montgomery area.
The Hornets are anxious to end the second week of practice with their first scrimmage to look at some of the positions they have been working on filling.
“I think our guys have bought into the concept of spring ball and what we are trying to get accomplished this spring,” Head Coach
Reggie Barlow said. “We know on offense we have some guys that we're plugging in the offensive line positions, but this is probably the most depth we have had in the spring at that position.”
“The guys are working and we are trying to find those six or seven guys we feel we can mix and mingle in the offensive line. There have been some positives there.”
ASU went into spring practice with several quarterbacks competing for the starting position and it has been a fun competition for the coaching staff to step back and watch.
“The quarterback position has been a real competitive fight,” Barlow said. “(Daniel) Duhart and (Arsenio) Favor have been playing well and Favor is really catching on and is beginning to understand the system and is making some really good throws. Duhart has been steady and consistent and doing some positive things and that is a pleasure.”
The Hornets brought in a new defensive coordinator and are trying to learn a new defense. The scrimmage should give a good indication of how well they are picking up the scheme.
“Defensively we are trying to learn a new scheme and from a personality standpoint it is way different from the way we have done it in the past,” Barlow said. “We are going to be more aggressive and play a lot more man. We have seen some shake up in the depth chart. It has been good competition and the guys are coming out and competing every day.”
ASU is looking to run a lot of plays during the scrimmage under a controlled setting.
“We are looking at coming out and running 90 plays in the scrimmage,” Barlow said. “Last week we just wanted to get 50 or so plays to grade some guys and we ended up doing 70. I want to see some of these guys that normally don't get to play and give them an opportunity to show what they can do.”
“This scrimmage will be more of your typical scrimmage. Last time we wanted to see things like out of 10 plays how many third downs can you complete. This one here will be to move the ball. We are trying to score and we will start on the 25. If we are not having a lot of action on the positive side we will move the ball up and go from there.”
The scrimmage is set to begin Saturday, April 13 at 9:30 a.m. in Hornet Stadium.
