MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama football worked through roughly two hours of situational drills in full pads Tuesday as the Jaguars continued preparing for Saturday’s first game in program history against Hargrave Military Academy at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Practice Breakdown
The South Alabama practice opened with 15 minutes of punts and punt returns, followed by a 20-minute position period. During that block, the offense and defense split up, with linemen and backs working on inside run plays while receivers and defensive backs went one-on-one.
The first-team offense and defense then spent about 10 minutes on blitzes and blitz pickup, followed by 10 minutes of skeleton passing. In the final 40 minutes, the units separated to work against scout teams, with the defense on the grass field and the offense on the turf field.
Jones: ‘Tuesday Is Our Work Day’
“We worked on every situation. Tuesday is our work day, and we try to hit every situation,” head coach Joey Jones said. “We ran a lot of hard inside drills, some skeleton drills, goal line and red zone. It was pretty much a full day of it, but tomorrow we’ll cut back and Thursday we’ll work more on the kicking game and special situations.”
Jones said the offense has made progress in recognizing and picking up blitzes.
“We’ve shown signs of picking things up, and today, at least mentally, they were getting to the right places,” he said. “The quarterbacks did a great job of getting the ball out and getting it to a receiver. That’s hard to do. It’s a defensive period, with the defense laying their ears back and coming at the quarterback. The offense has gotten better and better, so it’s been really good for them, and the defense has done a good job of blitzing.”
Gregory Outlines Offensive Approach
Offensive coordinator Greg Gregory said the Jaguars will focus on their own execution rather than adjusting to an opponent they have not seen.
“We’re a tough football team physically, and I think we will execute pretty well,” Gregory said. “Our whole philosophy is to do what we do best. We’re going to run our plays and they’re going to have to stop us. We’re not going to try to adjust a lot to what they’re doing, and we really don’t know what they’re going to do, so we’re going to try to make sure we do what we do well, and hopefully that will be good enough.”
Final Days of Preparation
The Jaguars will practice in full pads again Wednesday, hold a lighter session Thursday and conduct a walkthrough Friday.
“We’ve got to be smart and get our legs back under us,” Jones said. “I want the kids to relax and get their assignments down mentally. We’ve pounded them for the last three-and-a-half weeks, and now we’re backing off to try to get them ready.”
As of Wednesday morning, the athletics department’s ticket countdown showed 16,362 tickets remaining for the opener at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, which seats more than 40,000.
