Sept. 24, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford football team practiced for about two hours in shells Wednesday afternoon at Seibert Stadium. The Bulldogs are continuing to prepare for Saturday's Southern Conference opener at No. 8 Elon.

Head Coach Pat Sullivan said the team enters the game relatively healthy.

"Other than Jeremy Richardson, our starting corner who we lost against Ole Miss, we are healthy," Sullivan said. "We have a couple of guys who have little nicks, but they will play."

Sullivan said the Bulldogs are looking forward to their first road trip in the Southern Conference. Samford enters the game with a record of 2-1 overall, and the Bulldogs are coming off a bye week. Elon is currently 3-1 overall and 1-0 in SoCon play after a 22-20 win at Georgia Southern last week.

"We're all excited about this first trip," Sullivan said. "We know we are the underdog, but we are all looking forward to going over there and seeing exactly where we stack up."

Sullivan said coming off the bye week has its advantages and disadvantages.

"When you come off a good performance, you want to keep the momentum going and we've kind of broken that a little," Sullivan said. "On the other hand, we were able to get some of the nicks and bruises healed up a little, and we should be pretty much at full strength."

Samford will practice again Thursday at 3:45 p.m. in shells at Seibert Stadium. The Bulldogs will depart for Elon, N.C., Friday at 7:45 a.m.

Saturday's game at Elon is scheduled for a 12:30 p.m. Central kickoff from Rhodes Stadium. The game can be heard live on the Samford Football Radio Network. The flagship station for the network is WVSU-FM 91.1. The game can also be heard worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/groups/wvsu/.