Junior WR Corey Waldon Undergoes Knee Surgery
South Alabama’s Junior Wide Receiver Corey Waldon underwent knee surgery on Friday. Waldon, who was held out of practice on Thursday, will likely miss 3-5 weeks but aim to have him ready for the Jaguars season opener against UTSA on Thursday, August 30.
Trainer Jinni Frisbey said that his surgery went well.
Jags Complete Third Practice Of Preseason Camp Saturday
Head Coach Joey Jones talking with wide receiver Carr Tigner during preseason practice.
South Alabama got started early on Saturday morning to beat the rain chances and completed their full practice schedule for the day. It was overcast most of the morning, but the humidity made it pretty warm. The hydration staff roamed all morning making sure the players were well hydrated to help prevent players from overheating and cramping.
The Jags practiced for almost two-and-a-half hours on Saturday in shells (helmets and shoulder pads) with the offense focusing on inside running plays. In all, the offense ran over 100 plays against the defense working on the inside run, 7 on 7 skeleton passing and full-team drills.
The first half of practice focused on individual drills and fundamentals. The quarterbacks worked with the running backs and receivers in 10 minute periods while the offensive line worked with Coach Matthews. Additionally, the receivers and defensive backs would work one-on-one on while other personnel worked on inside drills.
The defensive linemen and outside linebackers worked on the sleds early in the practice. The secondary and inside linebackers did drills with Coach Clark, the defensive coordinator, while also going through various formations before going against the offense.
During skeleton drills, C.J. Bennett started with back-to-back completions to Jereme Jones and Bryant Lavender. Transfer quarterback Ross Metheny hit Jared Palmer in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown later in the drill. Tyrell Pearson deflected a pass as well as picking off a pass that was deflected by lineback Jake Johnson. Darrius Morrow also broke up a pass during the drill.
Bryant Lavender added three receptions during the final team drills of the day. Corey Besteda added a few catches during the day as well. One fully extended catch and a Tyrone Prothro-like near catch along the sideline, however it appeared that he could not come down with it in the end.
In the first practice, there were four or five players who obviously cramped up. After the practice, the staff made sure to remind them to eat plenty of food and, particularly protein and drink lots of gatorade. It was obvious today that the staff helped the players to correct those problems from the first day.
Coach Jones made note in the post-practice talk that he is seeing the benefits from the offseason strength and conditioning workout regimen. The benefits are not only physical, but mental and in leadership roles.
“We’ve got more leadership on this football team,” Head coach Joey Jones said. “What I am hearing is guys leading others, which hasn’t happened as much in the past. That’s going to make things better as we go through this football season.”
“I was happy with the effort, they came out ready to go and their minds were on it,” he said. “Obviously we have some things that need to be sharpened up, but this was really just our second day of practice. We have a way to go, but I was real proud of the effort.”
“We wanted to concentrate on running the football and stopping the run when you put shoulder pads on for the first time,” Coach Jones further explained. “The inside drill went really well, I thought the defense got after it while the offense hit a few plays. It was good to see the intensity. I’m not worried about results right now, I’m concerned with the process. It’s not going to be perfect now, we know that, but if we continue to work on the process we’ll have a chance to be good later on.”
There were times when the offense looked flat later in practice. But that really is to be expected at this time. Coming into preseason camp, the quarterbacks and receiver tend to have an edge but the defense will typically pick up quickly and surpass the offense. Which I believe explains today. Also, this is the third day of intense workouts in the humid weather, that much intense work will take something out of you this early in camp.
On the injury front, Brandon Ross was dressed out but did not participate in contact drills. However he did hold pads for certain drills. Qudarius Ford iced up his knee late in practice. Will Thompson had an occasional limp. Eddy Cabrera got winded late in the conditioning drills.
In recruiting news, Alabama commit Darius Paige appeared at practice today. Paige, a 6’3″ 275-pound defensive tackle from Pensacola, Florida observed practice with Assistant Athletic Directory Haven Fields. Paige, who committed to the Crimson Tide back in May, has been offered by a number of schools including: Arkansas State, Clemson, FIU, Florida State, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Marshall, Mississippi State, Tennessee and South Alabama.
The Jags will have Sunday off before returning to the practice field on Monday morning at 7:15am.
NCAA Board Of Directors Approve New Bowl Selection Process
As talked about earlier this week on Thunderjags, the NCAA Board of Directors approved a new selection process on Thursday for bowl games. This new process includes the possibility of a team with a 5-7 record to be selected to a bowl game.
Under this new measure, on the contingency that there is not enough bowl-eligible teams or if a bowl cannot be filled by its conference affiliations, the open spots would be filled through a six-tier process.
- First consideration will go to 6-6 teams with a win against any FCS teams (Former Division I-AA) regardless of scholarship numbers.
- Then a 6-6 teams with wins over two FCS schools.
- Follow by a team that finish 6-7 and loses in a conference championship game.
- Next a team that finishes 6-7 that play a 13 game schedule allowed under the Hawaii exception (Hawaii and it’s home opponent).
- Then a transitional team moving from FCS to FBS if they have a 6-6 record.
- Finally A team with a top-five APR that finishes 5-7 on the season could be selected.
There are 124 FBS Schools as of 2012 (Four are transitional teams which will be completing their second year of a two year transition). As you probably know by now they are the University of South Alabama, UT-San Antonio, Texas State and UMass. There are four schools that have a bowl ban for the 2012 season, Ohio State, Penn State, North Carolina and most recently UCF.
However two more institutions, Oregon and Miami (FL.) University have cases pending before the NCAA which could further lower the number of bowl-eligible schools to as few as 114 possibly. There are 35 bowl games which opens 70 slots for bowl teams.
In 2011, there was worry that there would not be enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the needed slots. By the end of the season there were 72 teams for the 70 slots, including a 7-5 Western Kentucky team which was not offered a bowl berth.
While we have been told the Jags would not be eligible for a conference championship or a bowl game, that may not be true now. Depending on how the rule is applied, IF the Jaguars can finish with a least a 6-7 record, they could potentially be eligible to fill any empty slot in a bowl game.
“It’s exciting to even hear that news,” Head coach Joey Jones said. “We had put that completely out of our mind and that next year would be the first year that we would have an opportunity. For our players and our staff, that’s something to work toward.”
Jags Appear On Bowling Green Schedule For Home-And-Home Series
Bowling Green announced updates to their future non-conference football schedules which included two dates with the University of South Alabama. They have added a home-and-home series against the Jags on September 11, 2021 in Bowling Green and the return game will be on September 3, 2022 in Mobile.
Between now and 2021 when the Jags are scheduled to play the Falcons, they could potentially meet in a bowl game. The MAC and the Sun Belt conferences have previously signed a deal with the GoDaddy.com bowl, which is played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, for the top team from each conference to square off in a MAC vs Sun Belt match-up.
Future Sun Belt member Texas State has dropped off of the Bowling Green schedule. They previously had a home-and-home series scheduled for September 19, 2015 in Bowling Green and a September 24, 2016 date to travel to San Marcos, Texas. No reason was given for dropping Texas State.
UPDATE: Bowling Green has since taken the reference to the South Alabama schedule off of their site.
Jags Second Practice Cut Short Due To Weather
Quarterback CJ Bennett prepares to take a snap in the light rain at the Jaguar Practice Facility on Friday evening.
The Jaguars hit the field for their second practice of preseason camp but cut it short due to weather. After only an hour on the practice field with light rain, Coach Jones has to call off practice due to lightning too close the practice facility.
Saturday’s practice has been moved up from the previously announced 6:30pm time to an early 7:15am practice. This will mark the first time the Jags will hit the field in shells and allowed light contact.
Their short practice allowed them to work on individual drills for a little over 30 minutes before about 15 minutes of skeleton passing drills. It was during the Skeleton drills that the call was made for the players, coaches and staff to return to the Football Fieldhouse.
First year offensive coordinator Robert Matthews said that, after meetings and walkthroughs prior to practice, the offensive unit would not be affected by the weather and that the installation of the game plan will continue to be on schedule when they take the field on Saturday. The offense is converting to the spread from the multiple power offense that had been run previously.
“We had a lot of good meeting time today, but unfortunately lightning popped and we had to go back inside,” Coach Joey Jones stated. “We can make it up with good meeting time and walk through time, but the bottom line is we didn’t get in much of a practice. But we’ll have a good practice tomorrow morning, I’m looking forward to that. We were going to practice in the morning starting on Monday anyway. There’s a 20-30 percent chance of rain tomorrow morning, but 40-50 percent chance in the afternoon, so we rolled the dice and will go in the morning.”
South Alabama Completes First Preseason Practice
Head Coach Joey Jones speaks to his team after the conclusion of the Jaguars first practice of preseason camp.
The University of South Alabama opened preseason camp on Thursday night at the Jaguar Practice Facility behind the Football Fieldhouse. The Jags begin preparing for their season opening match-up against UTSA on August 30 a nearly three hour session. (See videos at end of article)
The players hit the field in shorts and helmets as they began preseason camp which began with individual position drills, one-on-one position drills, multiple 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills, group position skills and about 10 minutes of 11-on-11, offense vs defense drills where they ran around 30 plays.
After warm-ups practice began with individual skill drills for around 30 minutes before going into the first skeleton passing drills which lasted for about 15 minutes. The first and second team units combined for about 24 snaps and the third team was on the field for about 15 or more plays.
The squad came together for another skeleton passing session over an hour later. The first and second teams run about 16 plays each while the third team added at least 10 snaps themselves.
Head coach Joey Jones was pleased with the session but was quick to let the players know that more is expected of them and they still have a long way to go.
“It was a long practice and it was hot out here,” Coach Jones stated. “They came out with great effort and intensity, but we did have a few guys cramp up. They were mentally sharp, but what I challenged them with is to work on everything individually to make our team better. If they can do that and we are better on August 30 than we are now, then we will be achieving our goals. We can’t rest, we need to keep pushing.”
Coach Jones said that he expects a similar distribution of plays to continue next week as they get closer to the first of three preseason scrimmages. After the scrimmage, the coach staff will begin to focus on potential starters and forming a depth chart. “For a week and a half, I would say that we will give equal reps at least through the threes,” he explained. “After that, we’ll have to start to make some decisions.”
Coach Jones was also pleased with the performance of the quarterbacks and receivers. He attributed their success today with their voluntary workouts over the summer.
“I thought our quarterbacks distributed the ball very well,” he said. “You could tell that they have been working through the summer. They knew where to go with the football, and they placed the ball in some good spots. I was pleased with that.”
Some notable players were not on the roster today, Receiver J.J. Keels and Linebacker Logan Bennett were both absent from roster. We were unable to get any reasons why they were not on the roster, however it is suspected it was academics.
The Jags will return to the Practice Facility at 6:30pm on Friday and are scheduled to wear shorts and helmets again.
Head Coach Joey Jones speaking about the first practice of preseason camp.
Demetre Baker speaking after the first practice of preseason camp.
Quarterback CJ Bennett speaking after the first practice of preseason camp.
Brandon Ross speaking after the first practice of preseason camp.
Linebacker Jake Johnson speaking after the first practice of preseason camp.
Jags Opener Versus UTSA To Air On ESPN3
Yesterday the University of South Alabama announced that their Sun Belt opener against Troy will be televised. Thursday, South Alabama announced that their season opening game on Thursday, August 30, 2012 versus the University of Texas-San Antonio will be aired nationally on ESPN3 as part of the Sun Belt’s network in the fall.
This is the first of two Jaguar contests that will be broadcast on ESPN3. The Jaguars game in Raleigh versus North Carolina State on September 15th is the other game scheduled on the network. The Jags game against Troy will likely be broadcast on the network as well, but there has not been a formal announcement.
ESPN3 is the live multi-screen sports network for ESPN. It is available nation wide online and also available on many mobile devices via the WatchESPN app. ESPN3 is freely available to around 73 million homes nationwide through their high-speed internet service provider or video subscription from an affiliated service provider.
It is also available at no cost to around 21 million US college students and US-based military personnel.
Go Jags!
Jaguar Golf Honored By Coaches Association
The Jaguar golf team is honored, for the fourth straight year, by the Golf Coaches Association of America by being named an All-Academic Team. In order to be eligible for this honor, each player on the team must carry a minimum 3.0 GPA for the academic year. The school must submit the grade points earned and the hours attempted by each player on the official team list to be considered.
Last season 11 Jags had a minimum of a 3.0 GPA and four of them had a 3.5 or higher. As a team, they had a 3.35 GPA for the 2011-2012 season.
79 NCAA Division I schools were honored for the 2011-2012 season.
McLain Leberte was recognized by the GCAA as a Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar as well. He will be a senior this coming season.
Go Jags!
ULL’s Hudspeth Named Outstanding College Coach In Louisiana
University of Louisiana-Lafayette head football coach Mark Hudspeth was named the Outstanding College Coach for the state of Louisiana as part of the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Awards.
He will be honored along with Christi Orgeron, who was recognized as the Outstanding Female Amateur from New Orleans.
Under Hudspeth, ULL improved the Cajun’s from a 3-9 record in 2010 to a 9-4 record in 2011 which included a thrilling win over San Diego State in the New Orleans Bowl. That was their first bowl game in 41 years and tied the school record of nine wins in a season. They were also a perfect 5-0 at home.
Additionally, they set a school and conference record with an average attendance per game of 29,171. That was an increase of 11,788 per game which lead the nation in attendance increase.
The Jags will travel to face the Rajin’ Cajun’s on November 24, one week before the Jags travel to Hawaii to end their regular season.
Vote For The Jags In ESPN’s Wear Your College Colors Contest
Go vote for your Jaguars!!
ESPN is hosting a ‘Wear Your College Colors’ contest right now. We blew up the voting for the Coach Of The Year the last two years before fading behind some of the bigger schools. We can do it again with this.
Visit http://ESPN.com/CollegeColorsDay and vote for YOUR South Alabama Jaguars! Vote Early and Vote Often!!
Go Jags!!