MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama head coach Joey Jones has closed practice to fans and media this week as the Jaguars prepare for Saturday’s game against Troy, the first Sun Belt Conference game in program history.
The decision to hold a closed practice for South Alabama is a first for Jones, who cited the reach of social media. The Jaguars practiced for about two hours Tuesday.
“With the social media nowadays, there’s too many people that talk, so we’re just going to close practice this week,” Jones said.
Troy as the Measuring Stick
Jones told the Press-Register that Tuesday’s session went well and that his players understand what the in-state matchup represents.
“It was good today,” Jones said. “Our kids realize that Troy’s a great football program. They know how to win, they’ve been in a lot of big games and they’re kind of the standard for what we’re trying to get to. So our kids have prepared well. They understand it’s going to be a big game, but the bottom line is we’ve got a lot of big games this year. We’ve just got to keep preparing. I’m just proud of the way they’re coming to work. They need to keep doing that and continue to work hard this week to get better.”
Jones said the Trojans set the bar for his program.
“Sure. This is the standard by which our football program is going to be measured in the future,” Jones said. “Obviously, Troy’s at the top of the league. That’s the measuring stick for our football program because they’ve been so dominant. We’ll find out this Saturday where we measure up.”
Offense Seeking Points
South Alabama scored 31 points in its season opener against Texas-San Antonio but has totaled 26 points over its last three games, an average of 14.25 points per game through four contests.
“We’ll see Saturday, but obviously the biggest goal offensively is we’ve got to score points,” Jones said. “We’ve moved the ball and we haven’t gotten it in the end zone and that’s something that we’ve got to do. We’ve got to score some points in order to be able to compete with Troy. They’re going to score some points. They’re just very good on offense. They’re one of the best offenses I’ve seen in the Sun Belt on film. They’re very good so we’ve got to score some points offensively.”
Game Information
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The game is South Alabama’s first at home after back-to-back road games at NC State and Mississippi State.
Ladd-Peebles Stadium is the largest venue in the Sun Belt, and South Alabama is aiming to break the conference’s single-game attendance record, which stands at about 32,000.
The game will be televised on CSS (Comcast Sports Southeast).
