MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama’s defense allowed one touchdown before red zone drills in Saturday’s second spring scrimmage at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus, recording 18 tackles for loss, including six sacks.
Defensive Leaders
Ken Barefield led the defense with 12 tackles and an interception. Justin Dunn and Tim Harvey added six tackles each, Romelle Jones had five, and six other players recorded four tackles apiece.
Tony Threatt was credited with three of the six sacks.
First-Team Offense
Brennan Sim led the first-team offense, completing 7 of 17 passes for 80 yards. The unit scored for the first time on its third drive. Eli Smith carried on four of the first five plays for 31 yards, and a Sim pass to Kelly Vail reached the 16-yard line before Vail lost 12 yards on a reverse. Michel Chapuseaux finished the drive with a 42-yard field goal.
The first team reached the end zone on its final possession. Sim completed three consecutive passes, the last a 28-yard touchdown to Kevin Helms on fourth-and-2.
Third-Team Touchdown
The third-team offense produced the only other touchdown before red zone work. On the unit’s first drive, facing third-and-6 at its own 39, Gabe Graham hit Bryant Lavender near the left hashmark, and Lavender broke a tackle on the way to a 61-yard touchdown.
Red Zone Period
The offense scored on all three possessions in the red zone drill. Smith ran 5 yards up the middle for a touchdown, Myles Gibbon threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Martin, and Ellis Hill scored on a fourth-and-1 run.
Offensive Statistics
Lavender led all receivers with 74 yards on two catches. Jereme Jones had a team-high four receptions for 39 yards, Courtney Smith caught three passes for 20 yards and Ralph Turner had two catches for 37 yards.
Eli Smith ran 13 times for 39 yards, Ryan Scott added 36 rushing yards and Santuan McGee had 31.
Gibbon completed 6 of 9 passes for 89 yards and threw the day’s only interception. Graham was 4-of-5 for 97 yards. The offense finished with 266 passing yards and 169 rushing yards, a total of 435.
Jones Pleased With Spring
“That’s pretty much what we’ve seen all spring,” head coach Joey Jones said of the defense. “The defense did a good job of stopping the run, they really played well early in the scrimmage. I’m proud of those guys.”
“Offensively I thought we got a little better as the scrimmage went on,” Jones said. “I told the team afterwards that we’ve just gotten better. When you watch film, I’m not so much worried about the results or how many touchdowns there were. We’re looking at individual plays and the fundamentals, we’ll worry about the scoreboard in the fall. The bottom line is that I’m real proud of the team, we’ve had a great spring thus far. We have achieved our goals.”
Spring Game Wednesday
South Alabama will practice Monday and Tuesday mornings at the Jaguar Practice Facility. Spring practice concludes with an intrasquad game at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, with players having already held a draft to form the two teams.
“The players are really excited [about Wednesday’s game],” Jones said. “They have already went through a player draft and formed two teams. I look at it that those guys will go out and have fun, because the bottom line is that evaluations are pretty much done. The teams will be split, which usually leads to things being a little out of synch. I’m not going to worry about that.”
