Romelle Jones And Enrique Williams Among 14 From Sun Belt Named To Senior Bowl Watch List
Romelle Jones and Alex Page give chase to the FAU quarterback during the Jaguars win in 2012.
Two South Alabama Jaguars were among 14 Sun Belt players to be named to the Senior Bowl’s watch list that was released on Tuesday.
Romelle Jones, a 6’2″ 280-pound defensive lineman from New Orleans, and Enrique Williams, a 6′ 235-pound linebacker from Mobile’s Blount High School, were announced to be on the Senior Bowl’s watch list.
Jones was credited with 18 tackles last season with 11 of them being solo and two of them were behind the line of scrimmage. For his career he has 70 total tackles, 41 solo, 19 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, two pass deflections, a forced fumble and three fumble recoveries. Last season Jones was hampered by a nagging injury.
Williams was the Jaguars number two tackler last season with 105 total tackles, 50 solo tackles, six tackles for loss, a pass deflection, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. During his career he has 239 total tackles, 114 solo tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, eight pass deflections, three forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and an interception.
South Alabama has had three players selected for the Senior Bowl. Courtney Smith was the first to be selected and played in the 2011 game. Last season Jake Johnson was a late add but tore his achilles on the first day of practice and was unable to participate in the game. B.J. Scott was another late add at defensive back and participated in the game.
The 12 players from the rest of the Sun Belt are: Arkansas State had defensive tackle Ryan Carrethers and running back David Oku; Georgia State had wide receiver Albert Wilson; Louisiana-Lafayette had wide receiver Darryl Surgent; Louisiana-Monroe had the most named to the watch list with quarterback Kolton Browning, wide receiver Je’Ron Hamm and wide receiver Tavarese Maye; Texas State had defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey; Troy had quarterback Corey Robinson; Western Kentucky had running back Antonio Andrews and inside linebacker Andrew Jackson.
The Senior Bowl is scheduled for January 25, 2014 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and will be televised by the NFL Network.
Football Fan Day Set For Sunday At The Mitchell Center
The University of South Alabama football team will hold their annual Fan Day this Sunday, August 25 from 4pm – 6pm at the Mitchell Center on the South Alabama campus.
Coaches and players will be on the mail floor of the arena for an autograph session. They will be joined by the Jaguar cheerleaders and SouthPaw. Bring your memorabilia and your camera.
This event is free to attend and parking will also be free on campus. South Alabama ticket agents will be available for you to select your seats for the 2013 football season as they will have information for all of their ticket options.
The USA Bookstore will be set up selling official JagWear merchandise and tailgating supplies.
Also, the 2013 Volleyball coaches and players will be on-site with schedules and posters for the upcoming season.
Go Jags!
Coach Joey Jones Names Metheny Starter
Head Coach Joey Jones looking on as the Jaguars warm up for their game at North Carolina State in 2012.
Head coach Joey Jones announced on WNSP this morning that Ross Metheny will be the starting quarterback for the Jaguars when they open the season against Southern Utah in just over a week at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
After the coaches reviewed the film after the Saturday scrimmage, they began setting the depth chart to go into game-week preparation. Ross Metheny got the nod for the starting positionm however Brandon Bridge, who will also see playing time.
Quarterback has been the talk of the offseason and spring with Brandon Bridge being eligible after sitting out a year for transferring from Alcorn State to the Jags and a good spring practice earlier in the year. Coach Jones believes he has two quarterbacks he can win with and he will find a way to get those kind of players on the field. Also look for Trey Fetner to continue his wildcat ways when called upon. Just don’t expect the same rotation as last season between C.J. Bennett and Metheny.
The running back position will see Jay Jones, Cris Dinham (both transfers) and Kendall Houston share playing time with Julien Valentin and Terrance Timmons also getting some playing time. Valentin really impressed coach Jones in the scrimmage on Saturday with his performance. Kaleb Blanchard and Xavier Johnson may be redshirted this season.
The deepest position on the Jaguar offense, wide receiver, will see a lot of rotation. Senior Bryant Lavender, JuCo transfer Shaverez Smith and immediately eligible transfer Danny Woodson Jr. will all see lots of field time on the outside with Jereme Jones and T.J. Glover as inside slot receivers. Corey Besteda, Cameron Broadnax, Nathan Sassaman, Corey Waldon and Jake Howton will all see playing time, just how much time they will see in the rotation will be determined later.
Preseason All-Sun Belt pick Wes Saxton will be the starting tight end but Rush Hendricks and Davin Hawkins will all see the field as well. Ryan Onkka may be used as either tight end or as a full back in short yardage. Onkka, Jared Palmer and Kyle Sappington will all see some time but again, how much will be determined later.
Defensively the deepest position for the Jaguars is on the defensive line. Alex Page and Pat Moore will be the defensive ends with Theo Rich rotating in. Senior Romelle Jones and Montavious Williams will be the key inside defenders. Jesse Kelley, Ceasare Johnson, Jerome McClain and Randon Carnathan will all rotate in and may also see time at defensive end as well. Ridge James is listed as a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker and will see some time in rotation.
At linebacker Enrique Williams, Clifton Crews and Bryson James will be joined by Maleki Harris as the big four. Harris will be a hybrid Linebacker/Safety player. Desmond LaVelle will also see time and each of the player can play inside or out on the defense.
The secondary was the most suspect position on the defense last season and as such has received the most offseason focus. JuCo transfer Montel Garner will most likely be an opening day starter at corner. Qudarius Ford, C.J. May, Anthony Harris, Tyrell Pearson and Darrius Morrow are all in the mix. And if they are not starters, they will see time in rotation. At safety Terrell Brigham, Charles Watson, Steffon Fuller and Steven Fuller are all in play. Charles Harris has been moved to linebacker and may join Maleki Harris and David Hawkins as hybrid safety/linebackers.
T.J. Glover and Shavarez Smith were mentioned as kickoff returners but expect Jereme Jones to be involved as well. Glover will be used on punt returns but Jones or Smith could be used as well.
Special teams has not been settled yet. Aleem Sunanon has been mentioned as the field goal kicker but he has competition from Logan Gunn. Incoming freshman Brandon McKee will probably handle kickoffs with Gunn possibly in the mix as well. Senior Scott Garber continues to hold the punter position but McKee is also giving him some competition for the position.
No surprises on the offensive line as senior Matt Calcagnini will get the starting center job with juniors Drew Dearman and Shaun Artz as guards and fellow junior Ucambre Williams and sophomore Chris May at the tackles.
Sun Belt Adds New Bowl As Tie-In
The Cramton Bowl will be the host site for ESPN Regional Television’s new Camellia Bowl. Photo Credit: Chris Pruitt | wikimedia.org
The Sun Belt Conference has a new bowl tie-in starting in 2014. ESPN Regional Television announced that they will create a new bowl game that will be named the Camellia Bowl and will be played at the newly renovated Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.
The new bowl game will pair the Sun Belt against the Mid-American Conference with former Troy Athletics Director Johnny Williams serving as the game’s Executive Director.
This bowl becomes the third in the state of Alabama along with the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile and the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham. Originally the Legends Bowl Group had expressed interest in developing a bowl game at Alabama State but they concentrated their efforts on an effort in Charleston, South Carolina after ESPN moved to create the Camellia Bowl.
With the addition of the Camellia Bowl, ESPN Regional Television now owns nine bowl games after they added the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, Idaho to their lineup last week. They also own the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Las Vegas Bowl, New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, Texas Bowl in Houston and the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu.
This new bowl game is driven by the new college football postseason and smaller conferences that have more money due to the College Football Playoff contract. Those small conferences are seeking more bowl tie-ins.
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said the geographical consideration and ESPN’s involvement made the Montgomery bowl game a sensible choice for the conference as a third bowl tie-in. “The fact that ESPN is involved in the game from a business standpoint makes the bowl an immediate good business deal,” he said. “It eliminates the investment that the Sun Belt has had to make in other bowls.”
Benson continued, “Some of these deals in the past were advertising a $750,000 guarantee (to schools) and be required to buy $750,000 in tickets. What we expect out of Montgomery is a business model that will actually guarantee the Sun Belt and the MAC some revenue that isn’t tied to ticket sales. There will be more revenue on the front end.”
The deal with the Camellia Bowl is that the Sun Belt will guarantee to purchase 2,500 tickets. This is a new trend in college football bowl contracts where conferences buy fewer tickets and have more leverage with bowls in contractual terms.
The Sun Belt already has primary bowl tie-ins with the GoDaddy.com Bowl and New Orleans Bowl but commissioner Benson has not given up on a fourth bowl tie-in in Little Rock, Arkansas. “We haven’t given up on Little Rock yet,” he said. “The Sun Belt is still very interested in Little Rock, but we obviously need to have an opponent. I think Little Rock, for some of the same reasons that Montgomery worked, makes just as much sense as a game in Memphis or Shreveport or Birmingham or anyplace else in the footprint.”
Two other bowl sites continue to be interested in the Sun Belt conference. Orlando and Charleston, South Carolina. However, Charleston has a NCAA ban due to the Confederate flag remains on display on the State House grounds.
But the issue that some may be asking themselves is ‘Will there be enough eligible teams for the bowl games.’ That is a good question. Last season we were talking about how South Alabama could have been eligible for a bowl game even though they were not a FBS member and thus eligible for a bowl choice. In the end, the new rule passed by the NCAA did not need to be used as, in the end, they had enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all the bowl slots.
Montgomery has spent about $10 million to renovate the Cramton Bowl. The stadium was built in 1922 and has a listed capacity of 25,000. It hosts the Raycom College Football All-Star Classic held each January. It previously was the site for the Blue-Gray Football Classic, an all-star game that was normally held on Christmas day, from 1939 through 2001.
Jags Finish Fall Camp With Scrimmage On Saturday
South Alabama Head Coach Joey Jones talking to his team after their scrimmage at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, August 17, 2013.
The South Alabama Jaguar football team held their second scrimmage of preseason camp on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium under dreary skies. Unlike last time, the offense was the standout until in this scrimmage with some big plays and 470 yards of total offense.
Ross Metheny went 12-of-15 for 125 yards and opened the scoring with a 19 yard scamper down the right sideline to cap off a seven play, 75 yard drive. The touchdown came two plays after a 31 yard pass completion to Cris Dinham.
Brandon Bridge passed for 101 yards on six completions, one of them to Danny Woodson Jr. for a 45 yard touchdown. Trey Fetner went 7-of-8 passing for 40 yards. All Jaguar quarterback combined to go 26-of-40 for 289 yards.
Fetner was the only quarterback to move the team during two-minute drills late in practice in the rain.
Woodson led all Jaguar receivers with 68 yards on three catches. Dinham added 63 yards on four catches. Bryant Lavender added three catches while Shavarez Smith, Caleb Alves and two other catched two passes each.
The Jaguar offense rushed for 181 yards on the day with Julien Valentin’s team leading 47 yards on 10 carries. He scored on a six-yard run during red-zone drills for the final points of the scrimmage. Terrance Timmons rushed seven times for 37 yards, Kendall Houston rushed for 27 yards on five carries and Kaleb Blanchard added 26 yards.
Head coach Joey Jones said, “He (Julien Valentin) came in there and showed me that he can be an every-down back. And Danny made a couple of big plays, not that that was surprising.”
Special teams added five field goals during the scrimmage. Aleem Sunanon connected on kicks from 32, 34 and 31 yards out. Logan Gunn connected from 29 and 37 yards out.
Defensively, Terrell Brigham and Devon Earl picked off two passes. Earl’s pick game on a pass deflection by Bryson James. Pat Moore led the team with six tackles, four were unassisted. Desmond LaVelle had five tackles and Bryson James, Anthony Harris and DeMarion Harper each recorded four. Harper collected 2.5 tackles for loss.
Jones also said that eight players, some projected starters on the defense, were limited or saw no action in the scrimmage. He indicated that those that were held out or saw limited action were four-year starters and didn’t need to see them in action on Saturday. They wanted to see the younger players in action for evaluation purposes.
The Jags will return to practice on Tuesday since Monday is the first day of classes on campus for the fall semester. However the coaches will be reviewing film and meeting to make decisions on the starting lineup, depth chart and travel team rosters.
The Jags are less than two weeks away from opening their season against Southern Utah on Thursday, August 29 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Danny Woodson Jr Cleared To Play Immediately For Jags
Danny Woodson Jr. catching a pass in practice in preparation for the Crimson Tide’s National Championship game. Photo credit: C. W. Griffin | Miami Herald
The University of South Alabama received some huge news on Friday afternoon. The NCAA approved a waiver filed by the University on behalf of Danny Woodson Jr. which will make the wide receiver eligible to play immediately for the Jaguars.
Woodson is a 6’1″, 201-pound native of Mobile. He spent the last two seasons at the University of Alabama and appeared in six games for the Crimson Tide during last year’s national championship run. He will have three years of eligibility remaining at South Alabama. He enrolled at the University over the summer.
Woodson graduated from LeFlore High School and was a four-star recruit according to ESPN.com recruiting services. Three other national recruiting services had him listed among the top 30 in the nation. As a senior at LeFlore, he caught 78 passes for 1,360 yards with 25 touchdowns as the Rattlers advanced to the quarterfinals of the state 5A playoffs.
During his senior season Woodson earned a first-team all-state honors from the Alabama State Writers Association.
He has eligible to practice with the team while his waiver was being considered but now he will be able to continue practicing with the team through the rest of camp and preparation for the season including the Jaguars second preseason scrimmage set for Saturday beginning at 9am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Jaguars Prepare For Saturday Scrimmage
The Jaguar football team held their final workout prior to its second scrimmage of preseason camp as they will be participating in off the field team building exercises on Friday.
Practice opened with individual and positional drills. This was followed by kickoff coverage for the early special teams work. Next, the Jags returned to positional drills before the offense came together to work as a team prior to a breather for the players.
After the break, they worked on 7-on-7 drills prior to group work with the offense and defense working against each other for over half-an-hour. They ended practice with special teams work on punts and punt returns.
The Jags go into the season with their largest and deepest offensive line unit ever in the teams short history. Shaun Artz, Drew Dearman, Chris May and Ucambre Williams are all returning letterwinners with Matt Calcagnini who also saw some action during the 2012 campaign. Melvin Meggs will miss the 2013 season due to injury, but just a year ago that news could have been devastating.
Including the loss of Meggs, the Jaguar offense will be without stallwart starter Trey Clark who started every single game for his four seasons at South Alabama at center. Clark graduated last year and now Coach Joey Jones and coach Robert Matthews will have to fill that position with another player.
Last season, Ucambre Williams was injured but by then they had developed some depth and Chris May was able to step in and fill his shoes. May was even selected to the Sun Belt Conference All-Freshman Team by beat writers.
Daniel Aust, Steven Foster, Clay Machen and Joseph Scelfo will all look to get playing time this season as they all sat out redshirting. Each of them were ranked with multiple stars by recruiting services across the nation.
Along with experience and depth, they also bring size with them. Among the linemen mentioned, Daniel Aust is the lightest weighing 280-pounds. May, Calcagnini, Scelfo, Shane Doty and Williams all weigh in at 290 with Dearman and Machen both weighing 310 with Darius McKeller topping the scales at 325.
While sheer size is not the only requirement for the offensive line. With more athletic defensive linemen and linebackers playing the game, the Jags are looking for leaner, quicker big guys for the offensive line.
With the offensive line solidifying, they only need to continue to improve their play and stay healthy for the season. Matthews’ spread attack will require them to move and move quickly. The coaches want to run the offense at a higher tempo than they did last season. In less than two weeks we will get to see if they are able to do just that.
The scrimmage will be held at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday from 9-11am and it is open to the public.
Jags Hire Russ Willemsen As Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach
USA Head Coach Matt Graves hires former Tennessee Tech assistant coach Russ Willemsen to fill vacant position on staff. | Photo collegechalktalk.com
South Alabama Men’s head basketball coach Matthew Graves has hired former Tennessee Tech assistant Russ Willemsen to fill the open position on his staff when former Butler player and USA assistant coach Ronald Nored left the program to join the Boston Celtics’ Development League.
While Willemsen was at Tennessee Tech, the Golden Eagles won 19 or more games in a season four times. As well as being an assistant coach on the court, he also serve as the camp director and oversaw the team’s academic progress at TTU. His work netted the program the 2007 and 2008 OVC Academic Achievement Award.
He got his start in coaching as an undergrad at Lee University in Tennessee as a student-assistant for two seasons before a full-time position in 2004-05. They had six players named to the NAIA All-America team as well as advancing to the round of 16 and the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament during his five seasons there.
He began his career at TTU as the director of basketball operations where he coordinated team travel, produced recruiting materials and film exchange. He is also a regular contributor to CollegeChalkTalk.com and wrote the introductory article for the website’s series on the legendary John Wooden.
Welcome to South Alabama coach Willemsen! Go Jags!
Klava Makes The Round Of 64 But Gets Eliminated In Match Play
After shooting a 67 to open the US Amateur Championship, Tyler Klava had a tough second round shooting 77 and having to play in a playoff to make the cut and get into the round of 64 for match play.
Klava made bogey’s on holes 3, 4, 9 and 10 including a double bogey on hole 12. His only birdie came on hole 17 to get it to +4 and into the playoff to make the playoff for the round of 64.
After the playoff on Wednesday, he also had to play 18 holes against #4 seeded Justin Shin from Canada where Klava fell 3 & 2 to Shin.
Mobile’s Bobby Wyatt is seeded 44th, who plays for the University of Alabama, defeated #21 seeded Rico Hoey of Rancho Cucamongo, CA 4 & 3 to advance to the round of 32 to face #53 seeded Gavin Hall today to advance to the round of 16.
Stewart Jolly from Birmingham, AL was seeded #10 defeated #55 Scottie Scheffler in 20 holes and will face #42 seeded Brandon Hagy of Westlake Village, CA in the round of 32 today.
Zach Hughes from Mobile (Samford), Robby Shelton from Wilmer (University of Alabama) and Ryan Benton from Dothan (Auburn University) all shot +5 for the tournament and missed the cut. Wilson McDonald from UAB and Cory Whitsett from Alabama were +6 missing the cut.
Jags Return To Practice After Day Off
Head Coach Joey Jones observes the Jags first scrimmage of preseason camp on Saturday, August 10, 2013.
The University of South Alabama is facing a key week of practice. They are over a week into fall camp, players are tired, sore and banged up from returning to hitting after a few months off. But this is where many games are won and lost, they have to fight through it to keep sharpening their skills and mastery of the playbook as the season is rapidly approaching.
The Jags hit the practice field and began with individual and position drills. Then the offensive unit came together to work on run plays while the defense worked on pass pursuit.
Later in the practice the offensive and defensive units came together to work on inside running plays and 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills. They then worked on full-team drills with third-down situations to begin that portion of practice.
In the team portion that spanning around 40 minutes, the offense ran nearly 75 plays.
The coaching staff reviewed the video from Saturday’s scrimmage and had defined goals to work on to correct things they saw in the scrimmage.
During the scrimmage on Saturday, the center position had a few mishaps with snaps going too high or ever over Brandon Bridge’s head. While head coach Joey Jones told AL.com that they have not settled on a definite starter, they definitely want to get one solidified but they also want to develop some depth as well.
Joseph Scelfo is a freshman and doing well at center, while Shaun Artz is moving back to guard and could be third in line for center.
The morning session lasted about an hour-and-a-half as they were coming back out for two-a-day practice. They were going to place emphasis on special teams in the afternoon practice period.