With spring practice now wrapped up, the Alcorn State Braves have plenty of work to do before the season begins Sept. 1 in a home game vs. Grambling State.

Spring practice ended Saturday with the annual Purple & Gold Game, where the defense took a 35-21 win over the offense.

The biggest storyline throughout camp was the plethora of injuries to several defensive starters, including linebacker Lee Robinson and cornerback DeShaun Lewis.

Getting over the injuries will be job No. 1 for the Braves during the offseason, according to head coach Johnny Thomas.

“We’ve got to get healthy,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to get over these injuries. Over the rest of the spring and summer we should be able to do that.”

Quarterback play was a problem for Alcorn during points of last season, and even with Chris Walker, who started the final five games of the season, playing baseball, Thomas felt significant progress was made during practice over the last three weeks.

“There was a lot of improvement,” he said. “They weren’t as sharp as you’d like them to be (during the spring game), but a lot of that was due to the pressure they were under (from the defense).”

Despite all the injuries, Thomas said the best part of spring was seeing he has plenty of backups capable of contributing in games.

“We gained tremendous insight on some guys backing up players,” Thomas said. “We also learned a lot about guys who we switched positions to see how they’d respond. That’s a positive. We’ve got a lot of guys who can step in and contribute, or maybe even take some starting spots.

“We’ve just got to work hard academically and come out healthy for fall drills. If we do that, we’ll be all right.”