MONTGOMERY—Following Saturday’s scrimmage the Alabama State University coaching staff sat down and evaluated the film of the scrimmage and found several areas the football team needed to concentrate on showing improvement in.
A glaring weakness the coaching staff saw was a need to get in better shape, especially the offensive line.
“The offensive line is not close to where we need them to be,” head coach Reggie Barlow said. “We need to have nine guys we can count on and there are not nine guys in shape to help us. It will be a continual process to get them where we need them to be.”
The defensive backs made some plays during the scrimmage and looks to be a strong group once the season begins. The linebackers are a talented group, but they are young and the coaching staff believes they can be a solid group once they get some experience.
“We are deep in the secondary and actually have four or five guys that can play on the corner,” Barlow said. “Our linebackers have to do a better job of attacking the line of scrimmage. They are a talented group and they run well, but we have to get them to grow up in a hurry.”
The coaches have spent a lot of time the past two days showing the Hornets their shortcomings and pointing out their weaknesses as the team prepares for their final preseason scrimmage on Saturday.
“We have talked to the team a lot about constructive criticism,” Barlow said. “We want them to know why we are telling them what we are telling them when they mess up and they are fine with that and have reacted well.”
The Hornets will have tomorrow off and will be back at practice Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m.
