August 14, 2003

INJURED DEFENSIVE LINEMEN FORCE CHANGE
IN FURMAN THURSDAY PRACTICE SCHEDULE

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A rash of minor injuries in Furman's defensive interior line forced the Paladins to alter their focus in Thursday's lone practice session.

The absence of defensive tackles Wesley Bray and Lutrell Alford, nose guard Justin Porter, and defensive end Tony Palazzo sliced the Paladins' planned three hour practice session to two and half hours and redirected some of the team's emphasis to special teams work.

"We're a little stripped out on the defensive line right now," said head coach Bobby Lamb following his team¹s third day in full pads. "We were down to rotating three guys between two positions and had to move Travis Jones down (inside) from end. He can play any position on the defensive front, but the number of guys we were missing limited what we could accomplish and how long we could go. That forced us to go heavy on special teams."

Bray sat out Thursday's practice after being sidelined Wednesday due to heat cramps. Alford and Palazzo, meanwhile, were forced to the sidelined for a second consecutive day with neck strains, and Porter is suffering from a knee strain sustained in Wednesday's practice. Bray and Porter could return to practice on Friday, but Alford and Palazzo may not be available to next week according to head athletic trainer Phil Hedrick.

"All in all it was probably good to stress all of our special teams in one practice," added Lamb. "We usually go two special teams sessions per practice; today we did four. We got in some quality work on our kickoff, kickoff return, punt block and punt return teams."

Senior All-Southern Conference placekicker Danny Marshall, who was slowed early in preseason camp with a strained leg muscle, appears to be returning to form according to Lamb, who also indicated the Atlanta, Ga., product could be a factor at punter this fall.

"Danny's coming along fine. He's starting to kick the ball well, and he's also punting the ball well, too. It looks like it's going to come down to him or Jeremiah Van Dora (at punter)."

Last year Bo Moore handled the team's punting chores, averaging 38.7 yards per attempt, but with his projected move into the starting quarterback role this fall, Lamb is looking for a replacement.

The Paladins have two practices scheduled for Friday for 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in preparation for Saturday's scrimmage at Paladin Stadium, which gets underway at 2:30 p.m.

"We'll go heavy in the morning and light in the afternoon to get 'em ready for the scrimmage on Saturday," added Lamb. "We'd like to have a long scrimmage on to take a look at everybody, so we want them to be ready to go."

Notes: Lamb announced that sophomore defensive end Johnny Shields quit the team Thursday morning. Shields had two tackles in limited action on special teams a year ago.