ELON, N.C. -- With just over a week until the final practice of the spring, the Elon football team was back at work on Thursday morning on the Hunt and Tucker practice fields.  Thursday's session featured a little more emphasis on team periods.

Here were coach Jason Swepson's thoughts following the morning workout:

On the team's focus during the final week of practice:

"We have to continue to cut down on the penalties.  We've done a good job protecting the football on offense; I believe that we haven't thrown an interception in the last six practices.  Everything is polish right now.  We still have to get a goal line scrimmage in and we'll probably do that on Tuesday.  On Saturday we'll do some situational things in the second half of the scrimmage.  Right now we're working on the little things.  I like where we're at.  We want to finish up on a strong note.  The defense is really excited about the package we're playing with.  We're doing a lot of man, a lot of zone, a lot of blitzing - we through the whole playbook at them.  It's a fun defense.  On offense, we're wide open anyway.  The receiver group is a veteran group, the quarterback group is a veteran group so we're going to open it up here in the last week and throw everything at them."

On how the players making position changes have adjusted:

"We moved Blake Thompson from safety to linebacker and, boy, I really like his command of the defense.  He's a tremendous leader.  He seems like he's a natural at that position.  That was a great move by our defensive staff.  Tevin James moved from defensive tackle to offensive guard and Saturday's scrimmage will tell us a lot about him.  He's been working really hard.  Matt Eastman moved to running back from tight end.  I'm really impressed with how he has just taken the role.  He looks like he's a natural out there.  I think all three were great moves and will help us win a championship."

On the wide receivers becoming comfortable with taking hand-offs:

"Those inside receivers got a lot of work in the run game today.  Those guys aren't afraid.  I thought they'd be bouncing it outside, but they stuck it up in there.  It's going to give us a tremendous boost.  It's also going to cause defenses to practice on personnel groups.  If they can keep progressing I think we have a future in that."

On the energy level at today's practice:

"The kids were excited.  I think we're going to finish the last few practices doing a lot of team stuff.  The kids like playing football and they're getting tired of doing individual drills.  The team periods had a lot of energy today and it was exciting."

2012 Elon Phoenix Spring Football Practice Upcoming Schedule
Saturday, April 21st – 2:30 p.m. (Rhodes Stadium)
Tuesday, April 24th – 7:35 a.m.
Thursday, April 26th – 7:35 a.m.
Saturday, April 28th – 1:00 p.m. (Spring Game – Rhodes Stadium)