Fort Dale is set to square off against Morgan Academy this Thursday, and the Eagles’ new offense will take center stage.

Since FDA is now a spread team, most of their efforts will be focused on throwing the football.

“Our first team will throw it a lot against Morgan,” said head coach Speed Sampley. “We’re going to sling it all over the place.”

Throwing more than running is a change in philosophy for Sampley, and he’s left the offense in Stephen Sorrells’s hands.

“When Stephen was a senior and played for me, we made it to the state championship game and threw only 43 passes in the entire season,” Sampley said. “We’re not going to throw that many against Morgan, but we might get close.”

The week started with a lackluster practice on Monday.

“When you’re running the ball and playing downhill, I believe you don’t have many bad practices because everyone has to go all out on every play,” Sampley said. “You have to be mentally motivated in the spread. The play might be running away from you, and you might be tempted to ease up.”

After Sampley “went over to the Dark Side”, as he put it, at Monday’s practice, he said he expected the Eagles to come out and have a solid practice on Tuesday.

The game against Morgan is set for 7 p.m. Thursday night in Selma.