BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University football team is preparing for its first full spring scrimmage, which will be held Friday at 4:15 p.m. at Pete Hanna Stadium.
 
The Bulldogs have gone through nine practices so far this spring. The first two weeks, the team practiced on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but head coach Chris Hatcher and his staff have treated this week as a normal game week. This week, the team practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and will have a walk-through on Thursday followed by the scrimmage Friday afternoon.
 
Hatcher talked after Wednesday's practice about the work of the team that day.
 
"We looked okay," Hatcher said. "We were doing some third downs and some red-zone goal line. Some new coverages were thrown in on the guys today and some new wrinkles offensively. So, we worked out some of the wrinkles there, hopefully that will play well for us Friday when we strap it up for a full-pad scrimmage."
 
The Bulldogs return 52 players from last year's squad, while losing 57. Samford returns one starter on offense, one starter on defense and two starters on special teams from last season. Hatcher talked about what he looked to see from the team during Friday's scrimmage.
 
"I want to see guys playing physical," Hatcher said. "Defensively, I want to see some guys run and make some good tackles. We scrimmaged a little bit at the end of practice yesterday (Tuesday) and we missed some tackles, and we've got to clean that up. I'm just looking for guys to be physical and that is what we've been preaching this entire spring practice."
 
Friday's scrimmage is the first of two that will be held during spring practice. The Bulldogs will wrap up the spring by scrimmaging on Friday, April 4.
 
Samford will open the 2025 season by hosting West Georgia on Thursday, Aug. 28 at Pete Hanna Stadium.
 
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