Leaders emerging on defensive line after Day 3 of practice

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon football team took the field in shoulder pads and shorts for the first time during the preseason on Saturday.

Head coach Mike Turk said the Hawks' third practice was a little more lively and another step forward. But Turk is still looking for his team to continue developing its mental toughness.

"I expected it to be a little more energetic and it was," Turk said. "But we still struggled with our energy level and execution level as practice wore on. The hard part is to train yourself to be able to execute and concentrate even when you're tired.

"You're going to be tired at the end of a football game. We have to simulate that the best we can in practice and try to train the guys to be able to handle it."

One group Turk is counting on for mental toughness and leadership is the defensive line. The Hawks return four defensive linemen (Derick Bothwell, Walker Lewis, Heath McCray and Phillip Bagley) who played in every game last season and a fifth (Drew Wheeler) who played in nine games. Bothwell started in all 10 games last season.

"We have five guys that have played for us, with Bothwell being the most experienced guy," Turk said. "In addition to Bothwell, Lewis and McCray have both played a lot at the interior positions. On the edge, Bagley is probably our most experienced defensive end. He did some good things for us last year, as did Wheeler.

"All of those guys are guys we have confidence in. But we like to play a lot of people up front, so we need to find a few more guys that we can rotate in."

Another player the Hawks will be counting on up front is Kris Cannon, a recently converted defensive lineman.

"We've moved Cannon to end and we think we have found a home for him," Turk said. "He is a guy that played H-Back for us last year, made the transition across the ball to linebacker in the spring and now to defensive line. He is a player and we've just been trying to find the right spot for him. Now, I think we have."

The Hawks return to the field in shoulder pads and shorts on Sunday for the first afternoon practice of the preseason. Practice is set to start at 3:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

"It will be a different environment in the afternoon," Turk said. "It will be hotter and that's something we'll have to pay attention to. But the main thing is it will be another day for us to get better. It will be our fourth practice, so it should be better than the first three. I want to see our guys focus on their assignments and play with a lot of effort."