NATCHITOCHES – When the Northwestern State football team wraps up spring practice Saturday at noon in Turpin Stadium with the 24th Annual Joe Delaney Bowl spring game, new coach Jay Thomas wants to have fun, and play a real game.
 
Injuries, particularly on the offensive line, have limited the Demons' ability to finish spring with a traditional game in recent years, but NSU will try to sustain momentum from a sparkling scrimmage last Saturday with a big finish to this spring's workouts.
 
“We made such a huge improvement last Saturday and going forward. We're looking to build on that momentum, particularly on the offensive side. I don't know if you can get much cleaner than we were last Saturday, but certainly we're looking to do that,” said Thomas. “Now it becomes about the little things, a bit more play polish, protecting the ball, the quarterback making better decisions which should happen with a little more time under their belts.”
 
The Demons will play a pair of 12-minute quarters under game conditions, then after halftime, have two 12-minute periods of running time game competition. That might not be all, said Thomas.
 
“We're going to make it work. It may take a little adjusting on the fly, but it will be good and we will have fun doing it,” he said. “We'll put the first offense and defense together, and the second offense and defense together. We've worked it that way so we'll have some continuity in their groups, and we can do a better job of evaluating.
 
“If everything's going well, we might keep going, get as much as we can in game-type situations. I'd like to say we're fully healthy, but unfortunately, we've got a few guys hurt and we won't have everybody out there. It's time for others to step up, get more reps, and show us their best,” said Thomas.
 
The kicking game action will be carefully controlled and limited by design, he said.
 
“We have roughly 75 percent of the offense and defense in, schematically. In the kicking game, we've covered every drill we could cover. We felt the fundamental work was more important this spring than putting in the schemes,” said Thomas.
 
The defense will not challenge the young quarterbacks with an array of blitzes or schemes.
 
 “We will keep everything pretty basic. We'll save different looks for August,” said Thomas. “We want the defense to be fundamentally sound, be very good in our tackling, get our base fronts and base coverages down, and run through a little kicking game and wrap up spring on a high note.”
 
Former Demon receiver Rudy Hines is the guest head coach for the White team which has the second-team offense and defense, while avid NSU supporter Norman Hicks is the guest coach for the Purple squad which has the first-team offense and defense. Normal scoring rules will apply.
 
Admission is free with tailgating in Demon Alley during the morning, with face-painting and a bounce-house available for kids. The first 200 fans in the stands get 2013 schedule posters with kickoff times, to be announced next week, for the 12-game slate this fall.