March 27, 2008

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Spring football practice begins at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, April 2, for the Southeast Missouri State University football team.

"We will practice at 6 a.m. each Monday, Wednesday and Friday in April with scrimmages on Saturday at 12-noon," said Southeast football coach Tony Samuel, who will be directing his third spring practice as Redhawks head coach. "Our emphasis this spring will be on fundamentals. Two years ago we were putting in our system and last spring we had a lot of new players, but this year we will have a veteran squad that can get down to the task of getting better and improving on fundamentals."

Samuel said there should be good competition for starting positions. "Finding our top players at every position is always a part of spring ball," he said. "We have four quarterbacks who will contend for the starting nod. We have senior Houston Lillard, who started several games last year, sophomore Steve Callanan, who has shown steady improvement, sophomore Jared Van Slyke, who is ready to vie for playing time and junior college transfer Dustin Powell, who just joined the squad at the beginning of this semester. We should have good competition."

There will be more time spent on kickoff coverage. "The new rule that had the kickoffs at the 35 yard line really opened the game up more," Samuel said. "It really changed field position and we need to make sure we take advantage of the return situations offensively and defensively we need to cut down on big returns.

"Spring practice is an opportunity to jell the talents and personalities of our team. We have 15 practices to improve our fundamentals and come together as a team."

The annual Spring Scrimmage will take place on Saturday, April 26, 1 p.m. at Houck Stadium.