RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Roy Kidd's Eastern Kentucky University football team begins spring football drills Thursday (Mar. 25) which begins two consecutive days of work in helmets only. Saturday's workout will be in full pads without tackling.

Kidd returns 32 lettermen for the 1999 season, his 36^th year at the helm of the Colonels' football program. He and his staff are hoping for good weather and an injury-free spring as he tries to begin to mold this young team into a contender for the Ohio Valley Conference crown this coming fall.

"We have a really young football team, especially on our offensive line, which means will definitely be concentrating on the fundamentals," Kidd said. "We going to take a strong look at a lot of our younger players and try to get them in the right position for next fall. Our main objective is to get better, but we have a lot of work to do."

Spring practice is broken down into three helmet only days, eight days in full pads with no tackling and four days in full pads with tackling. Plans are for Eastern's spring drills to end with the Maroon-White Spring Game at Roy Kidd Stadium, Saturday, Apr. 17, at 7:00 p.m.

Kidd expects a competitive battle at quarterback between two juniors, Waylon Chapman and Chad Collins. Chapman, who backed up Jon Denton last year, started the final game against Eastern Illinois and threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Rondel Menendez with 34 seconds left to give Eastern the 28-24 come-from-behind win and a winning record for the season. For the year, he hit 17-41 passes for 317 yards and two TD's.

Collins was redshirted last year after coming to the Eastern program in January, 1998, from Orange Coast College (CA) where he threw for 2,502 yards and 15 TD's in two seasons.

"The quarterback spot is wide open and we have some young receivers that will be competing for those starting positions," Kidd said.

The Colonel defensive unit has the most returnees with eight starters and 20 lettermen back from last year's team that went 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the OVC.

"We have a lot of people back on defense, but we're thin at tackle. One move we're going to look at making is putting Nick Sullivan at outside linebacker instead of strong safety. We'll let Scooter (Asel) and Shawn Gallant handle those two safety positions," Kidd said.

"We're also going to take a strong look at some young defensive backs who were redshirted last year," he added.

All in all, Kidd and his staff are ready to begin spring drills.

"Our kids worked hard this winter in the weight room and with their running drills in getting ready for spring practice. It's a shame that 11 players will miss all of spring with injuries, and eight of those are players we'll be counting on in the fall," Kidd said.