MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama football coach Joey Jones said he is excited about the program’s future after the Jaguars completed a 13-game 2012 season that finished the final year of their two-year transition into the Football Bowl Subdivision.
South Alabama finished 2-11 overall and 1-7 in its first season of Sun Belt Conference football. Four of the losses came by eight points or fewer, including a 36-29 defeat at Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark. Arkansas State went on to win the Sun Belt championship, closing its regular season with a 45-0 win over Middle Tennessee.
A Schedule of Firsts
The Jaguars faced 12 FBS opponents and one Football Championship Subdivision team, Nicholls State. Eight of the FBS opponents were Sun Belt members, the first conference schedule in program history. The non-conference slate included road games at North Carolina State, Mississippi State and Hawaii.
South Alabama was picked to win two games in preseason projections. Jones said he expected more.
Close Losses the Hardest Part
Jones said the most difficult part of the season was falling short in close games. He has often said that a handful of plays decide most games, and he said the Jaguars did not make enough of those plays in 2012. The staff, he said, needs to determine why that happened.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing because if we had won three or four of those games we would have been bowl eligible in our first year and that would have been a tremendous year,” Jones said.
Jones credited the team’s seniors for their contributions in building the program and said the Jaguars played competitive football and earned respect by taking several opponents down to the final minutes. He also credited his players and staff for the way they prepared each week, which he described as a fundamental part of a good program.
“When you see a team keep preparing as hard as it can and wanting to win every game, there’s a lot of teams that quit in these situations and this didn’t and that’s going to carry over. It’s one of the things I think we learned this season,” Jones said.
Bowl Eligibility Now in Reach
With the transition period complete, South Alabama becomes eligible for postseason play. Jones said that gives the program a new goal.
“Now we’ve got that carrot dangling out there in that we do have a chance, we can go to a bowl game,” Jones said. “We had four teams in our conference this year go to a bowl game; it should have been five. It gives us hope that the Sun Belt Conference is putting teams in bowl games and if we can do our part we can be in a bowl game next year. That’s what’s exciting about this coming year.”
Asked how soon the Jaguars could contend in the Sun Belt, Jones said he believed the team already competed with several conference opponents this season. The next step, he said, is learning to win those games, which will require offseason work, preparation, recruiting and better coaching from his staff. He said improvement will not come simply because the players are a year older and that the team must get better in every area of the program.
Redshirt Strategy and a Large Senior Class
Every freshman South Alabama signed in February 2012 redshirted this season except wide receiver Cameron Broadnax. The staff plans a similar approach with the 2013 freshman class unless a newcomer shows the ability to contribute immediately.
The redshirt approach will produce the program’s first large senior class in 2013. South Alabama expects to have more than 20 scholarship seniors next season after carrying only a handful in previous years.
On the offensive line, the Jaguars redshirted six players this season and will be two-deep at every position for the first time in program history.
Offseason Priorities
The focus now shifts to recruiting and the offseason conditioning program. The staff is targeting several junior college players who could contribute right away.
Offensively, the Jaguars are looking for playmakers, including a wide receiver and a running back with speed. Injuries thinned the backfield this season, when three running backs suffered season-ending injuries.
Defensively, the staff wants to add players who can improve the pass rush. Three defensive linemen were lost for the season to injuries, leaving the line short on depth at times.
