By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
NATCHITOCHES – It has not taken first-year Northwestern State football coach Blaine McCorkle long to develop trust in his team and his staff.
That is why McCorkle is not worried about how his team will handle a late change in their second full week of spring practice that will adjust the circumstances of the Demons’ first scrimmage of camp.
Instead of holding the scrimmage at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the Demons will move most of those elements into Friday’s 3:30 p.m. practice at Turpin Stadium. Saturday’s workout will still have officials but will be focused mainly on special teams work.
“We intended to do scrimmage and do some short-yardage stuff on Saturday, but we had some key personnel issues that will move it to Friday now,” McCorkle said. “We will still practice Saturday at the same time, but it will be a heavier kicking game emphasis with some team periods mixed in. This time of year, people are always adjusting around different things and there are moving parts everywhere. We have a good plan, and we like how the end of this week shapes up for us.
“I’m really excited for Friday’s practice. We’ll have a chance to do some good live-action, goal-line and short-yardage scrimmage and a few other scenarios. Saturday, we can shore up the kicking game.”
Friday will mark the third practice of the second week of spring workouts for the Demons, who still plan to hold a scrimmage April 13 – one week ahead of the annual Joe Delaney Bowl spring game.
After starting spring practice March 18, Northwestern State took last week off because of spring break before returning to workouts this past Tuesday.
While the end of the week has changed from an optics perspective, McCorkle said there are additional benefits from adjusting, virtually, on the fly.
“We don’t mind change, because the flow of a game changes,” he said. “I feel like our staff does a really good job of being organized and prepared. When you’re organized and prepared and have a good plan and things come along, it’s easy to adjust. When you operate in chaos and things change, you get in panic mode. It’s no sweat on us to flip the two practice schedules. We’ll keep on cruising. I think we’ve had a good spring so far, so I’m excited about the next two days and the chance to get better.”