Coach Jones Pleased With Thursday Practice Prior To Saturday Scrimmage
Head coach Joey Jones working with the field goal unit during South Alabama’s Scrimmage on Saturday, March 3, 2012.
The Jags hit the practice field Thursday morning for their seventh practice out of their 15 allowed practices during the spring. The workout lasted over two hours and coach Jones was very pleased with what he saw, more so than Tuesday’s practice.
“It was real good today, the effort was great,” Coach Jones explained. “The guys were lively this morning. I thought Tuesday was a good practice, but today’s was even better. There is no doubt we are putting more in and they are retaining it. These guys are coming to practice every day, that’s what I’m pleased with.”
South Alabama backs and receivers went through different formations and motions prior to coming together to run red zone 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills against the defense in a two-minute drill situation. They also went through some three-quarter speed rushing plays as they continued to focus on fundamentals and help the offense to run the ball better.
The special teams group worked on kickoff and kick returns. But Coach Jones has been stressing that, this spring, they had to slow down and work on fundamentals. However, on defense, he noticed that they worked at a faster pace after learning their new system and new terminology.
Not everything was good though. Jones expressed how many times the offense put the ball on the ground. Up until Thursday, this had not been a problem.
Spring practice is not only for fundamentals, it’s also a chance for players to seperate themselves and begin to make their case for positions on the depth chart. Maleki Harris and Jay Jones have both opened some eyes this spring. Additionally redshirt freshmen offensive linemen Daniel Aust, Steven Foster, Clay Machen and Joseph Scelfo are all working hard and pushing for playing time.
They closed out the practice session with nearly 35 minutes of team drills. One segment consisted of red-zone plays and a pair of two-minute drills to end the session.
Brandon Bridge had three long gains that eventually set up a six-yard touchdown to Jake Howton for the second team. In the latter portion of the practice, the first team defense did not allow any points.
“The two-minute drill was good,” Coach Jones explained. “The defense did a good job of stopping the offense our first time doing it. You have to familiarize yourself with situations, that’s what we’re trying to do this spring. If it’s third-and-eight and we have 20 seconds left on the plus-40 yard line and need three points, what are we going to do? We’re trying to teach them throughout these practices, it’s not as much about whether we are successful or not, so that they can learn from these situations on film.”
The Jags will return to the practice field on Saturday morning for their second scrimmage of the spring that is scheduled for 9:45am and will last about two hours.
“It will be a little different in that we will have a lot more special teams situations infused into the practice, but as far as the number of plays it will be very similar,” said Jones. “We’ll move the football around the field, we’ll be in the red zone and goal line more than we were the first time, which are the two changes we’ll make.”
Players Had Week Off But Football Staff Were Hard At Work
Head Coach Joey Jones looking on as the Jaguars warm up for their game at North Carolina State.
While the Jaguar players enjoyed spring break, head coach Joey Jones and his staff poured over video of prospects for the 2014 recruiting class.
The Jags also made several scholarship offers. Making early scholarship offers gets the Jags on the recruits mind early and, now that the Jaguars are a full FBS team, it means more. As a full member of the Sun Belt Conference and FBS, they are eligible for the SBC Championship and a bowl invitation.
Jones is always looking for playmakers. But they are also looking for a couple offensive linemen for their 2014 class. Defensively they continue to looking for players in the secondary at safety, cornerback and nickel while also finding some good players to contribute in special teams.
But in addition to recruiting, coach Jones and his staff were reviewing video from the first five practices and evaluating players. But this process will continue throughout the Jags remaining practices prior to their annual Red-Blue Spring Game.
“We had a good week evaluating our players,” Jones commented to AL.com. “Again, the whole thing about spring is to go through the whole spring and then evaluate them at that point. But certainly there are some guys who have caught our eye and are doing really well and moving away toward more playing time. That’s happened in the first five days and it will continue to happen for the remainder of spring.”
The week off for spring break has allowed some Jaguars to heal and get cleared to return to the practice field. Linebacker Bryson James was able to recover from dehydration and a head laceration and get clearance from the medical staff for Tuesday’s practice. Ridge James, another linebacker, was cleared to return after passing tests for a concussion he sufferred in the Jags third practice. Defensive back Charles Harris, who also suffered a concussion, was cleared medically to return to the field.
Eddie Cabrera, who suffered a fractured fibia during spring practice, will miss the remainder of the spring practices but should be healed in time for fall camp. Anthony Harris, Ucambre Williams, Shaun Artz and Randon Carnathan have all missed each of the practices this spring and most of them will not participate during the remainder of spring practice as they continue to recover from their injuries.
Jags Return To Practice Field After Spring Break
After over a week off, the Jaguars returned to the practice fields to continue spring football practice.
They hit the fields at 6am to practice in some breezy conditions which affected certain aspects of practice. They worked on position and team drills covering virtually all aspects of play. A big premium this spring has been put on fundamentals and ball control. A couple of drills were practices that focused on holding onto the ball, which plagued the team last season.
The offense and defense both have been working to lay down the basics of their plans for the fall football season. Coaches will disect the video to evaluate players and make decisions on who will receive increasing numbers of reps in the remaining spring practices and when fall camp begins in August.
Coach Jones commented that the team came back with intensity after over a week off. “It was good,” head coach Joey Jones said after practice. “I thought we had a great practice. The kids came back ready to go. They really retained a lot of the things they have learned the first five practices, which was good. We added some stuff offensively and defensively, so we made progress today.”
In the first five practices, coach Jones said that he and his staff kept them really simple to focus on fundamentals and to easily retain what they worked on. Now they are building upon that foundation. “We actually added things in today, which was good because obviously there are areas we need to work on,” Jones explained. “The coaches have done a great job of presenting it in a progressive way where they could learn it, they are not just throwing things at the kids. The way the coaches are teaching has helped the players on the field.”
During the practice they worked on individual skill drills before the first team offense began working on screen plays, which was followed by inside run drills. During that time, wide receivers and defensive backs worked in one-on-one drills.
A period of 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills lasted around 15 minutes before a segment of full team work. During the full team workout, they practiced on first, second and third down plays.
Split up in different segments of practice they worked on different special teams as they focused on punts, punt returns and field goals. Scott Garber and Logan Gunn both had standout punts during the punting session. Coach Jones, Coach Vincent and a number of Graduate Assistants worked with the players during the special teams workouts since no one has been designated as the special teams coach.
The Jags only have a total of nine practice sessions left including their annual Red-Blue spring game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, April 6. They will return to the practice field on Thursday morning at 6am, Saturday morning at 9:45am which Jones indicated would be a scrimmage and Sunday at 3pm at the practice fields on campus.
They have two practice sessions next week prior to another scrimmage on Saturday, March 30.
South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
The South Alabama Jaguars clinched the series against Troy with an 11-10 win on Friday night and a 7-5 win on Saturday but fell in the third game 7-8 as they were unable to complete the sweep in the conference opener.
USA scored seven unanswered runs in the final two innings which included a game-winning home run by Nick Zaharion to bring home the 11-10 win.
On Saturday, Dylan Stamey tossed 4 1/3 shutout innings in relief while Kyle Bartsch pitched a perfect ninth inning as the Jags won 7-5 and clinch the series against Troy on Saturday. Stamey allowed one hit and one walk while striking out a career-high five batters he faced to earn his fourth win of the season. Bartsch struck out one in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.
The Jags gave up five runs in the seventh inning as they fell to Troy 7-8 in the Sunday finale against the Trojans. The Jags held a 5-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning but an error allowed the Trojans to cut the lead to 5-4. Then a two-run double would put the Trojans in the lead 5-6. Then one batter later a three-run home run would put the Jags up 8-5.
USA would score two more runs in the game but could not manufacture another run to tie the game up. The Jags improve to 17-4 overall over the weekend and 2-1 in Sun Belt play while Troy falls to 12-6 overall and 1-2 in Sun Belt play.
USA will travel to Hammond, Louisiana to take on Southeastern Louisiana University on Tuesday with first pitch set for 6pm.
Softball
The South Alabama softball team won two out the three games over the weekend against #22 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette at Jaguar Field by scores of 7-3 and 8-4.
Senior Brittany Fowler batted .833 with three home runs, four runs scored and seven RBI on Saturday alone. She went 5-for-6 with a slugging percentage of 2.333.
Hannah Campbell and Farish Beard each pitched complete games on Saturday. Hannah struck out two to improve to 10-4 on the season while Beard struck out three and only allowed four hits to improve to 10-0 on the season.
The Jags fell 1-2 in the third game of the series on Sunday as Kaitlyn Griffith hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to give the Jags an early lead. ULL took the lead for good with a two-run fourth inning.
Ragin’ Cajun pitcher Jordan Wallace struck out 15 Jaguars on the way to the win.
The Jags improve to 23-5 overall over the weekend and 2-1 in Sun Belt play. ULL comes out of the weekend with a 19-11 record overall and 2-4 in conference play.
The Lady Jaguars will host UAB on Wednesday with a first pitch set for 4pm at Jaguar Field. They previously defeated the Blazers 8-2 on March 2 in the Magic City Classic.
Men’s Basketball
The season isn’t quite over just yet. The Jags will participate in the postseason for the first time in five years after accepting a spot in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
The Jags will face the Green Wave of Tulane on Wednesday at Devlin Fieldhouse in Louisiana. Tipoff is set for 7pm.
This is the fifth year for the CIT and it’s 32 team tournament. Previous winners of the tournament are Old Dominion (2009), Missouri State (2010), Santa Clara (2011) and Mercer (2012).
Interim head coach Jeff Price’s tenure on the court with be extended at least one more game. The Jags are in the midst of a coaching search for the head coaching position, which Price is also vying for.
The Jags are 17-12 on the season and went 14-6 in Sun Belt play. Tulane has a 19-14 record overall, it’s best since the 1999-2000 season.
Women’s Basketball
In a bit of a surprise on Friday, Athletics Director Joel Erdmann announced that he had relieved head coach Rick Pietri of his duties after 13 seasons at the helm of the women’s program.
“We will begin a national search immediately and look far and wide and near and far for who the next coach will be,” Erdmann said to AL.com. “It will be very similar to other searches that we have conducted. Obviously, we are looking for someone who has ties to competitive success and winning, while at the same time maintaining their eye on excellence in the classroom and managing a tremendous overall program.”
Pietri, in a phone interview with AL.com was very grateful of former AD Joe Gottfried for hiring a boys’ high school coach in 2000 to take over a women’s program that had struggled for several years. He also indicated that only one of his seasons was not better than the 10 season’s previous to his.
Pietri leaves as the school’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 220-167 and 111-104 record against Sun Belt Conference opponents. He had three 20-win seasons, the most recent in the 2008-09 season.
Erdmann indicated that he hopes to have a new coach hired as soon as possible. Possibly as soon as April.
The Lady Jags went 17-13 overall this season and fell in the first round of the SBC Tournament.
Football
The Jaguar football team will pick up where they left off prior to Spring Break. They will hit the practice fields at the Jaguar Practice Facility around 6am on Tuesday morning.
Jags Offer A Trio Of Players Recently
South Alabama has offered a trio of players over the last few days. The first is a local standout in Jerry Gibson of Theodore High School. Gibson is a 6’3″ 213-pound tight end that is listed as clocking a 4.83 40-yard dash. He has offers from Arkansas State and Furman so far.
Tyre McCants is a 5’10” 184-pound wide receiver from Niceville, Florida. He is rated a three-star wide receiver by 247sports. Rivals has the following stats on him: 4.45 40-yard dash, 490-pound squat max and a vertical of 39 inches. He also has offers from FAU, Georgia Tech, ULL, Louisville, Old Dominion and the Jags.
Keiwan Jones is a 6’2″ 265-pound defensive tackle from Dunnellon, Florida. He has a two-star rating from 247sports and has offers from Old Dominion, Western Michigan as well as the Jags. He is listed as having a 30″ vertical and a 330-pound bench max. Last season he had 36 tackles, 8 sacks, three forced fumbles, a blocked pass, a touchdown and a safety.
Season Ticket Renewals Have Been Mailed
The South Alabama Jaguars celebrate their first FBS win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday, October 20th 2012.
The South Alabama Athletic Ticket Office announced that season ticket renewals have been mailed out to season ticket holders.
The 2013 season will be a huge first for the Jags as they will be eligible for the Sun Belt Conference championship and a potential bowl berth.
The Jaguars have six home games scheduled at Ladd-Peebles Stadium with five of the six teams coming to Mobile participating in bowl games last season, including four Sun Belt opponents.
The Jags will kick off the season on Thursday, August 29 against Southern Utah, Western Kentucky on September 14, Kent State on October 19,Arkansas State on November 2, Louisiana-Monroe on November 23 and the season finale against Louisiana-Lafayette on December 7.
Season ticket prices are $50 for end zone seats, $85 for the East stands and $100 for the West stands. University faculty and staff receive a discount on up to six season tickets. Priority seating may be purchased in sections C-H in the West stands with a contribution to the Jaguar Athletic Fund.
Information about road games will be available on May 1. Call the USA Athletic Ticket Office at 251.461.1USA to renew or purchase new season tickets.
Go Jags!
Jones Pleased With Thursday Scrimmage
Offensive lineman Drew Dearman signals pre-snap as the Jaguars work in Spring drills last season.
The South Alabama Jaguars held their final practice prior to the University dismissing for a week for Spring Break. The session was half practice and half scrimmage.
The scrimmage covered over 80 snaps and used six different quarterbacks running the first, second and third string units. Though, Coach Jones said that there were no special designations as to what players were with the first team and those who worked with the second and third teams. The offense got started fairly quickly with some big plays as Ross Metheny hit Wes Saxtor for 13 yards then two plays later scrambling for 15 yards.
Next up was Brandon Bridge who opened the drive with a 19 yard completion to newcomer Jay Jones. Four plays later Bridge found Shavarez Smith on the sidelines, who shoved down the defender and took it 43 yards for a touchdown. Jay Jones also broke a 32-yard run on the day.
About midway through the scrimmage Bridge would notch another touchdown when he connected with Corey Waldon in the corner of the end zone for a 10 yard score. Earlier in the drive he sprang loose on a 3rd and 11 from their own 29 yard line for a 36 yard gain.
Metheny narrowly missed connecting with Bryant Lavender for a score from about 40 yards out, but Lavender was one step out of bounds. But Metheny did connect with Corey Besteda for a 30-yard score.
Qudarius Ford, who missed all last season with a knee injury suffered in preseason camp, had the lone turnover with an interception in the end zone. The defense had three three-and-outs during the second half of the scrimmage including a stop on fourth-and-two.
Logan Gunn attempted six field goals as part of the scrimmage. He connected on four of the six including kicks from 37 and 39 yards.
“We had a really good work day today,” head coach Joey Jones said after practice. “I can’t tell who did what running plays. We ran seven-play segments because we were trying to get a lot of plays in today. We got in about 80 in a 50-minute time period because the kids were hustling and doing a good job of getting to the ball on defense. We’ll watch film to get the results of who did what.”
“I think our leadership has been really good this year,” Jones continued. “The guys are mature and working hard to fix some of the little things behind the scenes. The offensive staff has done a good job in the offseason of trying to tweak some things and make our offense better. I though you saw some really good things out there today. We’re running the football better, that’s the big thing.”
“We’ll use the off time as a staff to work the whole week on recruiting and of course evaluating where we are at this point,” Jones explained. “I told the players that we’ve gone through five practices now, which is close to halfway, so we are seeing where we are lining up. We won’t make [depth chart] determinations until the end of the spring, but obviously we’ll start looking at the personnel as well.”
One of the most obvious differences was how well the Jags moved from unit to unit and play to play. The coaches did a great job in organizing and preparing the players to be ready on the sidelines. They ran on and off the field and looked sharp. The offense was able to get the ball snapped quickly, which is an improvement from last season. The defense also jumped offsides a few times, which Jones said will be addressed.
“I think we came out kind of slow, everybody was late,” linebacker Clifton Crews commented after practice. “We probably looked better the first three days of practice to tell you the truth. The coaches have come in and taught us a lot, but we are keeping it to fundamentals and sound technique. If we mess up, then mess up at full speed. We don’t want effort to be the problem.”
The Jags will pick up with practice after spring break on Tuesday, March 19 at 6am as they lead up to the Red-Blue game on Saturday, April 6th at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
SBC Football Schedule Released
Start making your travel plans Jaguar fans!
The Sun Belt Conference released the conference football schedule on the league website on Friday. This is complete Jaguars football schedule.
- Thursday, August 29: Southern Utah @ Ladd-Peebles
- Saturday, September 7: @ Tulane
- Saturday September 14: Western Kentucky @ Ladd-Peebles
- Saturday September 21: BYE
- Saturday September 28: @ University of Tennessee
- Saturday October 5: @ Troy
- Saturday October 12: BYE
- Saturday October 19: Kent State @ Ladd-Peebles
- Saturday October 26: @ Texas State
- Saturday November 2: Arkansas State @ Ladd-Peebles
- Saturday November 9: BYE
- Saturday November 16: @ Navy
- Saturday November 23: Louisiana-Monroe @ Ladd-Peebles
- Saturday November 30: @ Georgia State
- Saturday December 7: Louisiana-Lafayette @ Ladd Peebles
The Jaguars will have three bye weeks this season and will be in action on the last weekend of the season, December 7, when some conferences will be holding their conference championship game. Conferences with 12 or more members can host a conference championship game, the Sun Belt will only have eight football schools for the 2013 season.
The conference also announced that the Sun Belt will have two midweek appearances on ESPN or ESPN2 and four Thursday night appearances on ESPNU.
Two-time defending R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Champions Louisiana-Lafayette will be featured on both of the ESPN/ESPN2 matchups. First ULL will face WKU who is coached by former Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino and will be played in Bowling Green, Kentucky on either October 15 or 16.
The next week, ULL will face the defending GoDaddy.com Bowl Champions and two-time defending Sun Belt Champion Arkansas State on either October 22 or 23.
ESPN can also add additional games through their 12-day selection open. ESPN3 will also air this year’s Sun Belt Conference Football Media Day on July 15 in New Orleans for the second year in a row.
Jones Pleased With Progress On Defense
The Jaguars fourth practice of the spring, the second in full pads, lasted over two hours on Tuesday at the practice fields on campus. Afterwards coach Jones indicated that he was happy with the team’s progress so far this spring.
“I’m real happy”, Jones said. “We’ve got some things to work on like any spring, but we’re trying to work a lot of guys. I think we will be able to evaluate ourselves a little more in a couple of weeks, but right now we are on track.”
The Jags worked on several fundamentals during the first half of practice including a turnover circuit, screens and run plays and individual skill drills. Then in the second half of practice they moved on to short-yardage plays and 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills. The 7-on-7 drills included first, second and third down passing drills. The players came together for a team segment working on perimeter drills, second-and-10 situations and other first and second down plays.
Defensively though, the Jags caught coach Jones’ eye as they began to get the new scheme and terminology. “I thought, defensively, it was a much better day,” Jones explained. “The guys are starting to get it scheme-wise and were flying around to the football. I think that’s due to understanding better what they have to do. They took a big step today. There’s not much change, we’re still going to play hard-nosed football. Kevin Sherrer has done a heck of a job getting these guys to understand how we need to play.”
The team will have Wednesday off before returning to the practice field on Thursday for a half-practice, half-scrimmage at 6am. It will be the last practice before spring break.
Coach Jones and his staff want to see how the players react to game-like situations on the field. The coaches don’t have to stress how important it is, they are working hard to earn playing time this fall.
Coaches are looking to get players as many reps as possible, not really worrying about who is first or second string. “We really haven’t looked at it (depth chart),” Jones explained. “We obviously have to have people lined up to have an organized practice.”
“The bottom line is, we want to get them all reps right now,” Coach Jones reiterated. “We’ll evaluate that more after this week. Really throughout spring we’re going to try to stay away from who’s first-string and second-string. We’re trying to get everybody reps and make them better.”
Jags Open Second Week Of Practice Tuesday
South Alabama opens their second week of spring practice Tuesday morning for their fourth practice session.
The staff continue to get as many players repetitions as time and circumstances allow them to do. They continue to add some new wrinkles to the offense and evaluate players as much as they can. With over 100 players taking part in spring practice, the focus continues to be on fundamentals and evaluation.
But the learning process continues. The new plays have been filmed and reviewed. The coaches have broken them down, players have reviewed them and mentally prepared for Tuesday’s workout.
Offensively, running back Jay Jones has garnered attention in the Jags first three practices. He has showcased his speed to get to the edge but also the ability to run off-tackle up the middle as well. That was something the Jags staff wanted to get when they recruited him.
He joins some experienced players in the backfield in Kendall Houston, Demetre Baker and Terrance Timmons among others. Cristobal Dinham and freshman Kaleb Blanchard will join them this fall.
Jay actually ran a similar offense in his first season at Northeast Mississippi Community College, which has helped him grasp it quicker than anticipated. While he still has a long way to go, he believes that coach Matthews’ scheme fits him well and factored into his decision to come to South Alabama.
Jay will definitely have the upper hand on the players who will join the team this summer. He will know more about the offensive playbook and will have plenty of time in the weight room and conditioning program ahead of the newcomers.
Coach Jones likes having competition at positions on the team. He believes the players work harder and allows the staff to get a good evaluation of the players from that competition. Plus it’s good to have more options and styles to choose from on game day. Competition will make the team better.
Injury wise, the Jags have had only one serious injury. Cornerback Eddy Cabrera will miss the rest of spring practice with a broken fibia. Cabrera’s had another players leg whipped into him, breaking the fibia in the process. He had surgery performed by Dr. Albert Pearsall, the team physician, and is expected to be ready by fall practice.
Two other players are recovering from concussions. Defensive back Charles Harris suffered his on Saturday while defensive end Ridge James suffered his on Sunday. Once they are cleared by the medical staff, they will return to the practice field for the Jags.
The players will hit the field looking to improve their execution in preparation for what coach Jones referred to as a “half-scrimmage” coming up on Thursday. The Thursday session will begin as a normal practice, but with the scrimmage at the end. It will also be the last practice session for over a week as the team will have spring break off before returning to the practice fields on Tuesday, March 19 at 6am once again.