NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk State's 2011 spring football practice is scheduled to get underway Friday with a late afternoon session at the NSU practice field.

The Spartans are slated to spread their 15 practices over a three-week period. There will not be a typical spring football game, but rather several smaller intrasquad scrimmages throughout spring practice.

NSU is scheduled to return 14 starters off of last fall's 6-5 team which became the first team in the program's Division I history to record back-to-back winning seasons. Included among the returnees are quarterback Chris Walley, who completed an NSU single-season record 61.1 percent of his passes last year; and the top five tacklers off the Division I Football Championship Subdivision's No. 6 defense, led by linebacker Corwin Hammond (76 tackles, 11 TFL) and nose guard Josh Turner (46 tackles, 12 TFL).

The spring session will also give head coach Pete Adrian and his staff the opportunity to integrate eight freshmen who redshirted last fall and two mid-year transfers – lineman DeAnte Williams and quarterback Nico Flores – into the rotation.