MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama returned to the practice field Sunday afternoon, working between rain bands from Tropical Storm Lee to address problems from Thursday night’s season-opening win over West Alabama and begin preparing for Lamar.
The session followed two days off after the opener.
Getting Ahead of the Storm
Head coach Joey Jones said the staff introduced the Lamar game plan and covered every special teams unit during the workout.
“We went out and introduced the game plan to them and covered every special team and just gave them an introduction (to Lamar),” Jones said. “They’ll be off Monday and then we’ll be back at practice Tuesday through Friday. With bad storms coming, we wanted to get practice done before all that.”
Cleaning Up Turnovers and Penalties
Jones said the players recognized they had not played their best game against West Alabama despite the victory.
“I think they really did a good job. I think they realized they didn’t play a great game,” Jones said. “One thing, I thought they played extremely hard and physical, but I thought we had too many things that I think aren’t Jaguar football and that’s too many turnovers and penalties and bad special teams play. We addressed those. I think they definitely want to come out and play a good bit better this week and they’re going to have to, with a good team like Lamar coming in here.”
Early Look at Kent State
Jones, an Alabama alumnus, said he spent part of Saturday watching the Crimson Tide’s game against Kent State, a future South Alabama opponent.
“I noticed one thing,” Jones said. “When Trent Richardson rushes for only 33 yards, it tends to worry you a little bit. Those suckers are strong, they really are. Alabama had a hard time running the football. Kent State was ranked, I believe, last year in the top 10 in the country in rushing defense. I could see why.”
Jones said watching on television “just gives you a feel for them. You can’t study it like you would on film but you could see they know how to play defense, for sure.”
Up Next
The Jaguars are off Monday and will practice Tuesday through Friday before hosting Lamar on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
