MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama’s football team put on full pads for the first time Saturday, closing its first week of fall camp with a full-contact mini-scrimmage, and opened what head coach Joey Jones calls the most important week of preseason practice on Monday.
This week brings the Jaguars’ first two-a-day practices and their first fall scrimmage as the program prepares for its inaugural season.
Full Pads and a Mini-Scrimmage
Saturday’s workout was the team’s fifth straight day of practice. The Jaguars spent about an hour on drills before the offense and defense faced off in a full-contact mini-scrimmage.
Myles Gibbon took most of the snaps with the first-team offense, but Jones said it is too early to name a starting quarterback.
“We’ve got three guys working,” Jones said. “Kyle Stewart would be involved, but he’s injured right now. With the other three it’s close. Some guys do things better than others, but I’m really holding back until we see them for a couple of weeks because you don’t want to make a comment based on one or two practices.”
“We all have different abilities that we excel in, so we’re all just battling for that spot,” Gibbon said. “Every time we make a good throw it boosts us up, or every time we make a good read it boosts us up. Coach is right, it’s really close right now.”
The offensive line opened holes for several long runs, and sophomore running back Brandon Ross scored the only touchdown of the session on a 12-yard run near the end of practice.
Jones said the defense played well at times but allowed too many long runs.
“If we can stop that, stop the 25 or 30-yard run, and make that a seven-yard run, then I’d feel a lot better about what we’re doing,” Jones said. “But we can’t give up 25 and 30-yard runs.”
Kickers Under Pressure
Practice ended with a kicking competition that determined how many gassers the team would run. Each of the four place kickers attempted a 42-yard field goal while the offense and defense lined the hash marks to cheer and add pressure. The kickers went 2 for 4. Jones then offered a double-or-nothing attempt, which the team accepted, but the kick drifted wide right and the team ran four gassers.
“We want to continue to do that with our kickers. We want to constantly put pressure on them, because that’s what it is – they have to run out on the field after standing on the sideline for 30 minutes to kick a game-winning field goal,” Jones said. “If you apply a lot of pressure on the kids in practice then the games are easy.”
Jones said the second week of camp would shape the opener.
“The first game is going to depend on how we do this second week,” said Jones, who has coached for about 18 years. “It’s like I told the players, we’re in a tunnel right now and there’s not a light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve just got to keep working and working and working until we find some light, and hopefully that’s going to be here in about two or three weeks.”
A Critical Second Week
After their first day off on Sunday, the Jaguars returned Monday for a practice that ran from 7 a.m. to about 9 a.m.
“We’ve challenged the team,” Jones said. “This second week has to be the best week of practice we’re going to have. What we do this week is going to determine our identity. This is not a fun week – there’s no game coming up, they’re tired, we have two-a-days; all reasons for them to quit and give up – so if we can do it this week we will be able to do it throughout the year.”
Jones said the staff’s goals this week are to develop a depth chart, make progress with the playbook and build out the kicking game, which received limited work in the first five practices.
“We’ve worked on parts of it so far, but we need to start putting that together so we have our base packages in by the end of the week,” Jones said. “We also need to find out who our special teams players are going to be, and that goes back to the depth chart.”
“In an ideal world you want every special teams guy to be a backup player, but we are going to put our best players out there on special teams because we want to win,” he added. “This just opens a door for backups to get on the field.”
Rest Pays Off
Defensive coordinator Bill Clark said the day off came at the right time.
“It was nice. We went to church and had a nice lunch before coming back for some meetings,” Clark said. “It gave us a chance to get our legs back underneath us, so it was good to have the day off. We needed it, especially after three days of hitting and getting after it.”
Jones said the team responded well Monday morning. “This is one of the best groups I have ever been around as far as coming out prepared mentally and physically for practice,” he said. “I haven’t been around a group like this in a long time.”
Players stressed daily improvement. Redshirt freshman linebacker Josh Chestang said the depth chart can change every day, so players must keep improving. “Despite the heat and the two-a-days, we need to get better every day,” redshirt freshman offensive lineman Trey Clark said.
Monday’s Practice
Monday’s session opened with about 15 minutes of kickoff coverage and return drills, followed by roughly 25 minutes of position work. The offensive line and running backs then worked against the defensive front seven and safeties, while quarterbacks and receivers faced the defensive backs. Midway through practice, the offense ran about 15 minutes of 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills.
The final 50 minutes were devoted to situational work, including about 20 minutes against scout teams. In a drill giving the offense three downs to gain a first down, the offense converted on its first three tries: Ross opened with an 8-yard run, Nick Owens hit Corey Besteda on third down, and Gibbon connected with Ralph Turner. The defense then answered with three straight stops, two ending in fumble recoveries. Matt Saucier forced the second fumble, and Alex Page recovered it. Practice ended with about 10 minutes of third-down drills.
Two-a-Days Begin
The Jaguars begin two-a-day practices Tuesday, with sessions at 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., each expected to last about two hours.
