Brandon Ross Scores Three Times, C.J. Bennett Sharp in South Alabama’s Second Preseason Scrimmage

MOBILE, Ala. — Running back Brandon Ross and quarterback C.J. Bennett led the offense in the second preseason South Alabama scrimmage Saturday morning at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Ross scored three touchdowns on four carries, and Bennett completed 9 of 10 passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns.

The Jaguars are preparing for their first season as a member of the Sun Belt Conference in football, which opens against Texas-San Antonio.

Ross Back in Form

Ross gained 4 yards on his first carry and then scored from 1 yard out on his second during a red zone possession. On the second snap after the mid-scrimmage break, he ran 55 yards down the sideline for a touchdown, and he later added a 2-yard scoring run. Ross finished with 62 of the team’s 141 rushing yards, the most of any Jaguar.

Ross is returning from a knee injury suffered during the 2010 season that kept him out for nearly a year and a half. He was South Alabama’s leading rusher in 2009 and was leading the team again in 2010 at the time of the injury.

Bennett Directs Two Touchdown Drives

Bennett led the first-team offense on a 97-yard, 11-play drive on its opening possession, completing six passes for 80 yards along the way. He opened with a 7-yard completion to T.J. Glover, connected twice with Bryant Lavender for 13 yards each and hit Tyrome Bivins for 12 yards to reach midfield. After a 2-yard run by Demetre Baker, Bennett found Jake Howton for 23 yards and finished the drive with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Broadnax.

Bennett played one other series, a seven-play, 65-yard drive capped by a 31-yard touchdown pass to Baker.

Terrance Timmons ran five times for 29 yards, Ellis Hill had four carries for 18 yards and Baker added 17 rushing yards. Broadnax, Glover, Lavender and Nathan Sassaman each caught two passes as four quarterbacks combined for 181 passing yards.

Defense and Special Teams

The first-team defense allowed only two field goals, the last of them after a red zone possession that began at the 15-yard line.

Ben Giles and Anthony Taylor shared the team lead with seven tackles each, and Taylor added two pass breakups. Jesse Kelley had six tackles. Giles and Kelley were each credited with 1.5 tackles for loss. Randon Carnathan and Enrique Williams had three tackles apiece, and Davin Hawkins led the reserves with five.

Michel Chapuseaux made field goals of 37, 42 and 39 yards. Aleem Sunanon kicked a 32-yard field goal for the final points of the scrimmage.

Coaches Assess Progress

“Offensively and defensively, it was good,” head coach Joey Jones said. “Overall I’m sure we’re going to see some things on film that we need to correct. But we’re not quite where we need to be on special teams, and our sideline organization needs to get better. It wasn’t terrible, but there are some things that we have got to shore up. That’s why we do this.”

Jones said the staff would settle the depth chart over the weekend. “We are evaluating our players and will see where we are on the depth chart, and make those decisions this weekend,” he said, adding that game plan installation for Texas-San Antonio would begin Monday.

“I thought the defense came out and stopped the run pretty well and I thought they got after it,” Jones said.

Defensive coordinator Bill Clark said the starters got a lot of work. “We got our first guys a lot of good work, I thought we tackled well and got to the ball,” Clark said. “Our goal was to go 100 percent on our assignments today, we’ll have to see the film, but I think we looked pretty sound. It’s basically what we wanted to see. We’ve still got work to do, but it was a good finish to camp.”

Offensive coordinator Robert Matthews said the offense has improved fundamentally since camp opened. “We were able to execute a lot of base plays early today, in the second part of the scrimmage we tried to do some different things that we have been working on,” Matthews said. “Our guys know what to do, now it is just doing it at the speed and the tempo we expect. I think we are getting closer but are not there yet.”

Players Feel More Comfortable

Senior safety B.J. Scott said the second scrimmage was an improvement on the first. “We just had that in the back of our heads and we came out here and just got after it,” he said. “I think we all as a whole feel a little bit more comfortable and focused. It’s all mental at this point. We’re pretty much done beating up on each other.”

The Jaguars practiced Sunday so players could take Monday off for the first day of fall semester classes.