ELON, N.C. -- The Elon Phoenix football team hit Hunt and Tucker Fields for the first of two sessions on the day at 8 a.m. under cloudy skies on Sunday morning. The team worked out in uppers in its morning practice, but will don full pads during tonight's 7:15 p.m. exercise.

Sunday morning, the team worked on the two-minute offense and went through blocking drills. Elon also went through a pass skeleton period and worked on kickoff coverage and kickoff returns. In one-on-one work, the wide receivers faced the defensive backs while the offensive and defensive lines squared off. As practice was winding down, the Phoenix competed in a full offense vs. defense session.

Following the practice, defensive backs coach Brian Newberry provided some information on his position group.

"If you look at it on paper, the secondary should be a big concern for us this year," stated Newberry. "But I have been very pleased with our work so far."

When speaking of Dale Riley, who has transitioned to the position from linebacker, Newberry said, "Dale was a fish out of water for a while in the spring. He thought too much. Now he understands our defense and is playing fast."

"Blake Thompson has had an awesome preseason and is kind of our utility guy like Cam McGlenn was last year," added Newberry. "At safety, Brett McQuilkin is having a good camp and we have three freshman safeties which gives us good depth there. Junior Andrew Straus is currently sidelined with a hamstring pull. The freshmen – Juan Burnett, Chandler Wrightenberry and Jeremy Inglesi – have been impressive."

Newberry went on to talk about more of his defensive backfield, including lone returner Terell Wilson who he labeled "consistent." He said, "Ronnie Hardison is developing and has the biggest shoes to fill as he's replacing Karlos Sullivan. Jonathan Conner has done well at the boundary corner spot after moving there from safety in the spring. Freshmen Ed Burns and Akeem Langham are excellent athletes, but are raw and learning a new language."

Newberry feels that his group of defensive backs is meshing well with the defense as a whole despite featuring three new starters. "These guys come out and work hard every day and want toe get better. While the unit as a whole may be inexperienced, they almost appear to be a veteran group out there."