Aug. 12, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -
The Samford University football team practiced in full pads for the first time of the 2005 fall season on Friday as the Bulldogs turned in a tenacious two-hour workout at the hot and humid Samford practice fields.
"I was very pleased with the physical play of our team today," said Samford head coach Bill Gray. "We just need to sustain that type of intensity all throughout practice and there's no question that we had a good first day in full gear and we showed a lot of spirit. We had a lot of fun and we even had a little bit of pushing and shoving, and that's what you expect when guys put in a lot of hard work."
The highlight of Friday's hard-hitting practice came nearly an hour into the workout when the team competed in a variety of fierce offense-versus-defense, 3-on-3 tackling drills. For nearly 30 minutes, members of the Bulldogs' offensive and defensive units squared off against each other in a number of full-speed, 5-yard wide tackling drills.
"I thought that we did a good job in our 3-on-3 toughness drill," Gray said. "We had some big hits from both sides of the ball and the players seemed to really get into it. As a coaching staff, we use it to work on our fits on defense and it also helps our backs to start looking for holes to run through. It's a physical drill, but as long as our guys are getting after it 100 percent then everything ought to be fine."
In its first practice of full-contact hitting, the upbeat Samford squad continued to implement its defensive and offensive strategies for the upcoming season. The team also worked on incorporating its special teams systems and ran through some full-speed, 11-on-11 drills.
Samford also continued to work on both individual and team drills under cloudy skies at the Samford practice fields. For a predominant portion of the workout, the Bulldogs remained in their position groups before combining to form a full compliment of both offensive and defensive team units.
"I really like the attitude that I've seen so far in this bunch of players," said Gray. "They are a little younger than last year's team, so they're fresher and it hasn't become a monotonous deal for them yet. We'll just have to wait and see what their personality develops into, but I'm very pleased with this group so far."
The Samford University football team will hold its first two-a-day practice session of the 2005 season on Saturday as the Bulldogs are scheduled to work out at both 7:55 a.m., and 6:30 p.m. Samford's second practice on Saturday will include the Bulldogs' first scrimmage of the 2005 fall campaign.
