April 12, 2007

The Baylor football team completed its next-to-last practice of the spring Thursday afternoon with a helmet and shorts workout on the grass practice fields. Thursday's practice was the Bears' 14th of the spring and served as their final tune-up prior to Saturday's Dodge Spring Game.

"We did some reviewing of some of the things we've put in," said fifth-year Baylor head coach Guy Morriss. "We wanted them to relax a little bit and slow the pace down (today).

"We had them out here late last night (Wednesday) and I know that they have to be tired, so we tried to get their legs back under them (today)."

The Bears will conclude spring ball with the 2007 Dodge Spring Game which starts at 1 p.m. April 14 inside Floyd Casey Stadium.

Admission to the game is free and stadium gates will open at Noon. All fans attending the game are encouraged to sit in the West stadium grandstand area.

"We are going to have a good practice on Saturday and we wanted to make sure we have some energy, so we took it a little easy on them today and let them freshen up a bit," Morriss said.

For the fifth straight year, returning football alums will play a flag football game for the first quarter with the 2007 Bears then playing the final three periods. As part of the Dodge Spring Game Weekend, the Baylor "B" Association will hold its annual golf tournament on Friday, April 13 and eat the pre-game meal with the team on Saturday morning.

"It (Saturday) is a work day for us," said Morriss. "In the past, we've kind of had most of the hard work done and it (the spring game) was just for the fans' benefit.

"We've taken a different approach this year," he added. "We want to make sure that we get two hours of good solid work in. We're going to line up and go after each other. We'll probably go 1s vs. 2s for awhile and see who can make some plays. We are going to tackle, but we aren't going to drive people to the ground and we'll stay off the quarterbacks."

At least 10 Bears may miss Saturday's game due to injury, including returning starter Dwain Crawford (ROV).

Following Saturday's spring game, the Bears will hold their annual team banquet in the Galloway Suite at Floyd Casey Stadium.