South Alabama Football Returns From Off Day With Near Three-Hour Practice Before First Full-Pads Session

MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama football returned from its first off day of preseason camp with a nearly three-hour practice Monday morning at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus, and coach Joey Jones said the team improved.

The Jaguars had Sunday off after their first three practices of camp. Friday’s session was shortened to about an hour by weather.

Practice Structure

Players worked in shells for the second straight day. Practice opened with about 45 minutes of individual work for both the offense and defense, followed by inside drills and one-on-one work between receivers and defensive backs.

Near the midpoint, the team took a five-minute break in a covered, open-sided building equipped with fans before a brief stretch and returning to the field.

The offense ran about 16 plays against the defense in the first of two team periods. The Jaguars also ran a pair of skeleton passing drills of about 10 minutes each, the first in the open field and the second near the end zone.

The second team period, run near midfield, lasted more than 20 plays. Quarterback C.J. Bennett completed passes to five different players during the period, and Jake Howton caught passes from both Bennett and Trey Fetner. Bennett also connected with Greg Hollinger on a long completion down the left sideline. Hollinger moved from wide receiver to tight end during the spring.

Jones Sees Progress

“I thought it was a very good day, we definitely got better in practice today,” Jones said. “There were some mistakes, they always happen, but overall I thought we improved. It was almost a three-hour practice out here and they gave great effort.”

Jones said the team worked through a lull in the middle of the session and noted that no players had cramping problems.

He singled out the cornerbacks for improvement in coverage.

“In the secondary, at the corner position, our coverage is much better,” Jones said. “They are playing a lot of man-to-man and able to cover guys. They got beat a couple of times, but the coverage there is getting much better.”

Full Pads on Tuesday

The Jaguars are scheduled to practice in full pads for the first time in camp on Tuesday. Jones said the approach will be similar to Monday’s practice, with limited tackling.

“Inevitably, when you get the pads on it livens up a little bit,” Jones said. “The great thing about it is you can have the ones go against each other on the line of scrimmage, you can really get something done without worrying about anybody getting hurt.”

Broadnax Draws Notice

True freshman wide receiver Cameron Broadnax has performed well through the first four days of camp. Broadnax gives South Alabama additional size in a receiving corps that includes a number of smaller players.