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SAN ANGELO – Angelo State celebrated the first day of spring with a little football. The Rams took to the practice field for the first time under the leadership of new head coach Will Wagner and his staff, kicking off spring football practice at the LeGrand Sports Complex Monday afternoon. The session was the first of 13 practices leading up to the Angelo State Football Spring Game, April 17 at 3 p.m.

The team worked for close to two hours Monday afternoon in shorts and helmets during a session that could be best described as a “feeling out” practice with a new coaching staff, slight shift in the way the offense will run, and a complete change on the defensive side of the ball. The team conducted some similar drills to last fall's practices, but many of the drills were new or slightly augmented from years past. Many of the team drills focused on footwork and other fundamentals, and some featured a station-to-station rotation – all at a quick tempo.
There was a spirited competition between the defensive backs and the wide receivers with numerous wins by each side. The wide receivers look to be one of Angelo State's strongest units with several key performers returning, but the secondary held its own under the eye of Wagner, who coached the secondary at Northwest Missouri State before arriving at ASU in December.

Practice closed with a team session, pitting the offense against the defense while running through a series of scripted plays.

Notes:
- Former Angelo State players Garrett Tidwell, John Norcott, V'Keon Lacey, and Calvin Fance made appearances at the Rams' practice. Tidwell was named the top return specialist in the nation last season before playing with Norcott and Neiswander in the All-American Bowl in Minneapolis. Lacey led the Rams in receptions each of the last two seasons, including a school-record 74 catches in 2009. Fance, who led NCAA Division II with a school-record 14 sacks in 2009, played on the Saskatchewan Roughriders practice squad in the Canadian Football League last season.

- Angelo State has 87 players listed on its spring practice roster, including 38 redshirt freshmen. Among those players are five quarterbacks – Aqura Brown, John Shalala, Blake Hamblin, Michael Cochran and Tyler Lloyd – vying to replace record-setting Angelo State quarterback Josh Neiswander.

- Speaking of Neiswander, the former Ram worked out for nearly 20 NFL teams at the Abilene Christian Pro Day Monday and had a side session throwing for the Houston Texans. The Texans and Carolina Panthers were among several teams talking to the Winnsboro, Texas native at the end of the day.

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