Jags Hit Practice Field On Sunday After Big Win
The South Alabama football team was back on the practice field on Sunday to begin preparation for their next opponent. Though, they will have extra time to prepare for them since they will have this weekend off.
The Jags hit the practice field in shorts and helmets as they began to prepare for their trip to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers on September 28. They will somewhat keep a normal schedule with Monday off then practices on Tuesday and Wednesday for practices in full pads but they will take Thursday, Friday and Saturday off before returning to normal game-week preparation again on Sunday.
The bye week could not come at a better time. After a loss in their first game of the season on a field goal as time expired followed by back-to-back emotional come from behind wins, their emotions are spent. But they also have the normal bumps and bruises that would normally occur through the third game of the season. Those with bumps and bruises didn’t practice on Sunday, they just ran.
One of those is Freshman safety Roman Buchanan who left the game early in the third quarter after he was injured making a tackle. At first, it was feared from the stands that he may have hit his head while making the tackle, but it was actually a chest contusion but he will be ready to return to the field by the time the team travels to Knoxville.
Tennessee is 2-1 on the season after opening season wins over Austin Peay 45-0 and Western Kentucky 52-20 helped by seven Hilltopper turnovers. Tennessee is in the midst of a two-game road trip that saw them travel to Eugene, Oregon where they lost 59-14 while giving up 666 total yards to the Ducks while gaining 312 yards themselves. This weekend they travel to Gainesville, Florida to face the Florida Gators in their SEC opener.
“Watching the film, the first thing that stood out was just how hard our players played,” head coach Joey Jones told AL.com. “They played with great effort. The next thing that stood out was, we talked to them before the game that this was like being in a heavyweight fight; they’re a heavyweight team and they’re going to hit you in the mouth and they’re going to hit you in the gut and you’ve got to turn around and hit them in the mouth and hit them in the gut.”
“That’s kind of the approach we took and the I think the longer that that game went that we hung in there – we were down 21-10 at halftime and we score a field goal to make it 21-13 and score again and go for two and tie it up – at that point our kids knew we were in the game. You saw a different look about them. So I’m thinking the whole time that if we can make some plays down the stretch we’re going to win the ball game, and we did.”