MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama held its first spring practice in pads, a roughly two-hour session that marked the Jaguars’ fourth workout of the spring as they continue installing a new spread offense.
The padded South Alabama spring practice gave head coach Joey Jones and his staff their first chance this spring to evaluate players in full-speed blocking and contact as they work to set the depth chart.
Practice Structure
The offense spent about 10 minutes apiece on screens, pass routes, down-and-distance plays and third-down situations, mixing 11-on-11 work with skeleton passing.
During a 45-minute period in the second half of practice, the offensive and defensive linemen went through one-on-one pass rush drills, followed by drills matching one offensive lineman against two defensive linemen. Skeleton passing drills ran at the same time.
Jones Sees Improvement
Jones said the session was an improvement over the previous practice.
“It was real lively, I thought the kids got after it a little more than the last practice,” Jones said. “We have a ways to go offensively, but I thought it was better. The guys have to remember that it is not going to happen overnight, they have to come out every day and work. If they learn to do that, then we are going to be a really good football team.”
Jones said players are absorbing the new system, which South Alabama adopted with the hiring of offensive coordinator Robert Matthews.
“The tempo of our offense is just great. The kids are doing pretty well picking it up even though they have a lot of things to think about,” he said. “What we have to shore up is technical — who we are blocking and how we are blocking them. But they are getting lined up and understand what they are doing. They have done a good job studying their playbooks.”
The Value of Pads
Jones said padded practices are essential for evaluating players.
“It was good because that’s the only way you can evaluate these guys, and one of our goals is to try and fill our one- and two-deep,” he said. “The only way you can evaluate them is by putting pads on and blocking full speed. That’s valuable for us. They were ready to hit somebody. They’ve been lifting weights and running, so it makes for a more fun practice as well.”
He noted that opportunities for contact are limited during the spring.
“We’ve only got so many chances in the spring, you’ve really got about eight days that you can tackle,” Jones said. “Other than that, it’s just skelly and one-on-ones with no tackling. It’s kind of hard to get better on the offensive and defensive line. So we’ve got to take advantage of each chance we have to get better.”
Measuring Progress
A week into spring drills, Jones said the offense is not yet where he wants it to be, which he described as expected.
“We’ve probably gotten better in some areas, but if I’m asked whether it’s anywhere close to being a cohesive unit I would say no. That’s to be expected,” Jones said. “I want to look at the end of the spring to see where we are as compared to the first one [practice], because what you want each day is just a little bit of progress. It’s not enough to be great, but if we can do that by the end of the spring we will be decent.”
Next Up
The Jaguars return to the field Saturday at 9 a.m. in full pads. The session will not be one of South Alabama’s three scheduled spring scrimmages.
“It won’t be a total scrimmage, it will be much like today except with tackling,” Jones said. “Any time you put them under the lights, so to speak, you can watch and see. They know the film is on them, it’s live and in color, so you can evaluate much better.”
