South Alabama Hits The Field In Full Pads
Quarterbacks Trey Fetner and transfer Ross Metheny participating in position drills.
The Jaguars took to the practice field for their fifth time during preseason camp on Tuesday morning. Though this was the first time they were able to don full pads.
Practice went for almost three hours at the Jaguar Practice Facility behind the Football Fieldhouse on the South Alabama Campus. After warmups, they began with special teams and position-specific drills. Then the offense and defense faced off against each other in first and third-down situational drills which lasted for about 15 minutes.
Highlights from this segment included a 35-yard completion from Trey Fetner to Cameron Broadnax, a 15-yard run by Ross Metheny, a 10-yard gain by T.J. Glover and another 10-yard gain by Fetner. While on the defensive side of the ball, Will Thompson notched a sack and a fumble recovery and Bryson James and Eddy Cabrera both notched a pass breakup each.
The next session was the 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills for about 15 plays. C.J. Bennett went 4-of-7 with a touchdown pass to Wes Saxton for five yards. Metheny recorded three pass completions with one of them going for a 10-yard touchdown to Cameron Broadnax.
The Jaguar offense and defense met in the next session with the ball placed at midfield. Highlights from this drill was a 15-yard rush by Kendall Houston and a 17-yard completion from Bennett to Terrance Timmons. Defensively Thompson added a tackle-for-loss to his daily total, Cabrera added another pass breakup as well and Jake Johnson also recorded a pass breakup.
Coach Jones thought practice went well again. “I thought we had a good practice intensity-wise,” Jones said. “The defense is getting better in pass coverage. I’ve noticed that and talked with coach Walker about that during practice. We’re sticking much tighter to the receivers and the zone coverages are harder to find, so we’re getting better on defense. Offensively, it’s a continuation but I think we’ve made some progress. I really like the effort again. They came out with intensity and practiced hard, so we’re excited about that.”
Senior Linebacker Jake Johnson was excited to put the pads back on as well. “It’s always good to get the pads back on,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for this season since I came here to play. It’s a great opportunity to really show what our team is made of. We have gotten bigger, faster and stronger, which is really key.”
B.J. Scott also mentioned that the Jaguars are getting better. “We had good weather and guys were flying around. We got better today,” said Scott. “We are preparing and getting ready every day, and we’ll see what we can do when it’s time. But we should be better off with the experience and leadership we have on defense this year.”
The Jags will return to the field at 7:15am on Wednesday.