The Andalusia Bulldogs weren’t able to get in as much spring practice as they had hoped, but head coach Trent Taylor said he liked some of the things he saw during the limited action.

“We were only able to get in five days of practice,” Taylor said. “It wasn’t just because of baseball. It was having a lot of players and not a lot of space to practice them.”

Andalusia’s football field has been under construction for the past few months and is expected to be ready by the start of the 2018 season.

“With the field still being worked on, we had to get creative in how we practiced,” Taylor said. “The city was nice enough to offer the Kiwanis field, but with the number of kids that we have it was going to be a logistics nightmare to bus them to and from the field.”

Most of the outdoor practice field wasn’t able to be used because of construction equipment, but they were able to practice in the indoor facility.

“We were able to figure some things out,” Taylor said. “There are still many things left to work out, but I think we were able to do a good job with what we had to work with. Since we weren’t able to do much in the spring, this summer is going to be huge for us.”

In normal years, the Bulldogs would spend the month of June in the weight room and working on agility, but this year Taylor said for football “stuff” would be included.

“It’s going to be a little different for us this summer,” Taylor said. “Instead of just being in the weight room in June, we are going to have to use some of that time allowed to work on football stuff. We will spend part of the time working out and then part of the time working on putting in things on offense and defense.”

One big thing that the coaches have to figure out this summer will be who replaces Ethan Wilson at the quarterback position.

“We have a lot of holes to be filled from guys that graduated in May,” Taylor said. “One of the biggest spots that we have to fill is going to be quarterback. At this point, we don’t know who that is going to be. We had two or three guys that really did a good job in spring, but we haven’t decided who will be the starting quarterback.”

With the graduation of Wilson and several other key offensive players, Taylor said the offense will look different this season.

“We are going to be a different offensive team this year,” Taylor said. “We are going to put things in to fit our players. We don’t usually start football stuff until July, but we are going to be getting into those things earlier this year.”

Along with regular practices and workouts, the Bulldogs will also participate in camps with other teams.

“There is so much you are allowed to do now during the summer,” Taylor said. “In the past, you weren’t able to do as much in the summer. With us not having much of spring, it’s going to be important for us to take advantage of every opportunity that we can during the summer. We are planning to go to a 7-on-7 camp in Elba and then individual camps at T.R. Miller and Enterprise.”

Taylor said the Bulldogs’ numbers were up a bit this year.

“We had a great turnout for spring practice,” Taylor said. “We ended with 92 players. I’m sure that number will change before the start of the season.”

The players will get this week off before summer practice beings on Monday at 6 a.m.

“They have this week off, but we will get right back after it on Monday,” Taylor said. “One good thing, the field is done and we are going to be able to get down there on it and practice. We will be able to touch more on some things that we need to touch on before the season starts.”

The Bulldogs will open up the season on the road against Class 6A Saraland on Aug. 24.

Andalusia’s home opener will be on Aug. 31 against Trinity.

The first region game of the season will be on Sept. 7 against UMS-Wright in Andalusia.