Aug. 22, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford football team practiced for about two hours in shells Tuesday afternoon at Seibert Stadium. The team is working toward its final preseason scrimmage, which is scheduled for Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.

"I thought we worked well," Samford head coach Bill Gray said. "We had a good two-minute session at the end of practice. I thought the offense did some really good things. I liked the tempo and the way we practiced.

"We have numbers on defense, but it does us no good to have numbers if we don't hustle to the football every snap," Gray said. "We still aren't running quite the way we want to on defense, but that will come. They are continuing to get there, it's just not where we want it to be right now."

The Bulldogs will have their last two-a-day practice on Wednesday. The team will practice at 7:55 a.m., and again at 3:45 p.m.

"Tomorrow morning will be mostly special teams," Gray said. "Tomorrow afternoon we will go pretty hard and we will start to split them up with the scout teams and start working on Miles."

Gray said he likes the way the freshmen have worked through preseason camp.

"It's a tough time for the freshmen because all of sudden they will realize where they may be on the depth chart a little more realistically," Gray said. "I am proud of every one of the newcomers that came in and the job they are doing. We have finally gotten to the position as a program where we don't have to play freshmen, so the vast majority of them will be redshirted which will make us a better team in the future."

Samford opens the 2006 season on Thursday, August 31, when the Bulldogs play host to Miles College at 7:00 p.m. at Seibert Stadium.