Elon Football Completes Second Spring Practice of 2014

ELON, N.C. – The Elon University football team completed its second of 15 spring practices today, April 2, on the Hunt and Tucker practice fields.

Elon practiced for nearly two hours with helmets only on a much-welcomed warm afternoon with highs soaring into the mid-80s.

When new head coach Rich Skrosky took the job in December 2013, he became the third head coach of the Phoenix football program in five seasons. Skrosky is in his second stop at Elon after spending five years as a coach under former Elon head coach Pete Lembo. In his final two seasons, he served as the offensive coordinator.

In his last season as Elon’s offensive coordinator in 2010, six players on the roster are fifth-year seniors this season in Mike Quinn, Akeem Langham, Jonathan Spain, Austin Sowell, Kierre Brown and Dustin Ruff. Here are thoughts from Skrosky and a few of the fifth-year seniors on playing for a third head coach in five years, learning the new systems and more:

Langham on playing for a third coaching staff in five years:
“It’s definitely a lot of adjustments. I guess it really teaches us how to adapt to the chance and to embrace it. But having had to adjust before and having to do it again, this is definitely something I’ll take into my life after school being able to adapt to different situations.”

Langham and Quinn on the new systems:
Langham: “On defense, it’s a totally new system with a new defensive coordinator. Some of the things are similar, but the terminology is just different. But we’re learning and it’s coming along well.”

Quinn: “He brought the system back that I learned freshman year, but he definitely changed it a little bit at Ball State and it’s still a little new to me. I was a freshman so I don’t remember a lot of it at this point. It’s coming back step-by-step, though, and we’ll have it down soon.

Langham and Quinn on expectations for their final season at Elon:
Langham: “We want to win. That’s the biggest thing. But before we do that, we want to come out here to the practice fields and attack every day one day at a time and just get better and perfect our craft.”

Quinn: “Us six fifth-year seniors, we’re working so hard this offseason. We’re giving up our senior spring that everyone has a blast in. This is the last time you’ll see your college friends for a while. If we don’t do well, it’s going to be a dagger in the heart. We’ve sacrificing things like our social lives so we can really work at perfecting our game for one more season so we can get that reward of winning during our final season.”

Skrosky on coming back to a few familiar faces:
“It was nice to come back and see some familiar faces. And it’s funny, of the fifth-year guys, a lot of these guys are the guys I really recruited before leaving. This area was my recruiting area. I recruited (Jonathan) Spain. I recruited Mike (Quinn) up in New Jersey. Of the six, Austin Sowell and Kierre Brown are the only two I didn’t recruit. That was kind of cool to come back to see these guys were having success with the program and doing well. Their personalities have been interesting to see a few years after the fact. I wouldn’t say there have been a lot of surprises in their personalities but it’s been interesting to see how they’ve come along. I saw them when they were 18 years old as freshmen when they don’t know anything but they think they do. It’s been fun.”

All practice sessions are open to the public and the full schedule is listed below. Practice dates, times and locations are subject to change due to weather conditions.

Fans interested in attending a practice session should contract Jonathan Small, director of football operations, at 336-278-6718.

2014 Elon Phoenix Spring Football Practice Schedule
Friday, April 4 – 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 5 – 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 6 – 4 p.m.
Monday, April 7 – 5 p.m.
Wednesday, April 9 – 5 p.m.
Friday, April 11 – 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 – 10:30 a.m.
Monday, April 14 – 5 p.m.
Wednesday, April 16 – 5 p.m.
Friday, April 18 – 5 p.m.
Wednesday, April 23 – 5 p.m.
Friday, April 25 – 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 26 – 6 p.m. Spring Game (Rhodes Stadium)