With the first week of classes in the books, the football team still had business to handle as the squad participated in Media Day 2012 at the Victory Club inside of Strawberry Stadium from noon until 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 18.
The day started off with a team picture of the players putting their new uniforms on display. The weather then forced the players inside where first year head coach Ron Roberts addressed the media along with a few players, which included senior quarterback Nathan Stanley and fellow senior defensive back Robert Alford.
Media in attendance included WAFB, The Daily Star and the Southeastern Channel. Once media day concluded, Roberts and his players turned their attention towards the scrimmage that took place at 6:50 p.m. Despite the rain showers earlier in the day, the Lions still managed to keep things moving along with the scrimmage.
The scrimmage marked the second one of the fall, and Roberts liked the improvement he saw from his young receiving corps.  Roberts spoke highly of the group during media day, stating that the group was one of the team’s biggest strengths despite the inexperience. Leading the corps was junior wide receiver Tony McCrea who caught four balls for 126 yards.
“He’s a good player. He missed last scrimmage so it was good to get him out there on some of our DBs,” said Roberts in reference to McCrea. “He made some plays deep and that’s huge. The more experience we get them, the better off we’ll be in the long run.”
Even with the improvement from his young group of receivers, Roberts still saw a few things that he was unpleased with and would like to see less of going forward, particularly the penalties.
“The things that standout to me are we had two inside the red zone offensively backing us out and we had an offside penalty inside the 10, those are huge,” said Roberts. “But it’s good to get out here with the lights on and get the officials out here so we can work on those things and correct them.”
The Lions have one scrimmage remaining before wrapping up fall camp on August 29. The next scrimmage is set for August 23 at 6:50 p.m. in Strawberry Stadium.