MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Alabama State and head coach Donald Hill-Eley opened spring practice Monday afternoon at the Houston Markham Football Complex.

The Hornets went through individual and team drills, switching within those drills with more tempo than in springs past. They also went through special team drills with teaching moments throughout to set the stage for the fall.

Alabama State returns a wealth of talent on both sides of the football, including multiple starters in all three phases. The Hornets biggest battle of the spring will focus on the quarterback race under new quarterback coach Richard Moncrief and offensive coordinator Joe Blackwell, where Alabama State returns all four of their quarterbacks from a season ago this spring.

The Hornets return to the practice field Tuesday morning at 6 am (until 8 am), again on Thursday at the same time, before rounding out the week with a 4 pm practice on Friday. The team will hold their first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday at 11 am.

Season tickets go on sale April 1 for the upcoming 2019 season, for more information contact the Alabama State University Ticket Office at (334) 229-4551.

Quotable – Donald Hill-Eley
General Statement about opening of Spring Practice.
The first day we were just teaching guys where to go, just doing things different. We have new coaches in a lot of positions and in every phase, and the tempo in practice is different. We have to reteach them, how we start practice, what we expect in the drills. For the most part the effort was there, we just have to get it to the point where practice is not about getting lined up but in the play. We need to get them where they know where to line up and get success in the play.

There were a lot reps today with the new coaches and new tempo.
We had a lot of reps today. Anytime you are trying to teach muscle memory, and get rid of old ways of how to do things you have to get a lot of reps to teach a lot of the reactions to different plays. So we wanted to overload them today, and you will see a lot of that this spring so that it will become a habit.

The offensive side of the ball, a lot of new coaches and new schemes.
Coach Blackwell has been around a long time, and I have always been impressed with his offenses he had at South Carolina State and Norfolk State. He is a good ol' ball coach, and does a good job with the offensive line and the offense as a whole. I am eager to see it manifest here and transition into some success offensively.

Travis Pearson getting to implement his system on defense.
He is getting to implement his system and started the day off with the guys hustling and flying around. There is no secret to teams that win, teams that win play good defense. We've got confidence in Travis that he will get guys lined up, and get them to play with a lot of passion.

The question of the spring, what about the quarterbacks?
They are young, but they have to play like they are older, so we have to do some things to help them grow in the spring that we normally wouldn't do. You'll see some days where they are live. We just have to put them under the pressure in practice so that we can really evaluate and see how they perform under pressure. All the other positions have contact and you try to refrain from doing it with quarterbacks because you don't want to lose them, but you delay their development. As I told the team, you are going to have to heat them up a little bit this spring to see who is going to come through that fire.

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