Oct. 4, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford football team practiced for about two hours in full pads Tuesday afternoon at Seibert Stadium. The Bulldogs are preparing for Saturday's Southern Conference game at Furman.

Samford and Furman are meeting for the 14th time in football, with Furman holding an 8-5 advantage in the series. Since Samford joined the Southern Conference in 2008, Furman has won all three meetings, though two of those contests have come down to the final play of the game.

Samford head coach Pat Sullivan said he expects another close, hard-fought contest on Saturday.

"If we do our part, it will be a close game," Sullivan said. "They are a good football team. They have a lot of experienced players, they have a new coaching staff, they're playing with a lot of enthusiasm and it's a home game for them."

"I think our guys are getting better every day," Sullivan said. "Hopefully we'll continue to get better and we'll look forward to going up there on Saturday."

Sullivan said he thought his team got off to a good start with its preparation for the Paladins.

"I thought we had a good practice," Sullivan said. "It's not polished on Tuesdays, but we started putting in our game plan today. We have our work cut out for us, but I thought we had a good Tuesday practice."

The Bulldogs will practice again Wednesday. The workout is scheduled to start at 4:40 p.m. at Seibert Stadium.

Saturday's game at Furman is scheduled for a 12:30 p.m. (CT) kickoff from Paladin Stadium in Greenville, S.C. The game can be heard live on the Samford Sports Network, including Samford's on-campus station, WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.