Date: 3/20
Time: 3:10-5:10 p.m. (CDT)
Place: James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility
Practice attire: Full pads

Offensive Player of the Day: Maaseiah Francis, So., TE, Lithonia, Ga.
-Offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent on Francis: "Maaseiah comes out with a great attitude, he truly wants to be a really good player.  He's picked up where he left off at the end of the season except he's been better, he's making a lot of plays out there, his blocking on the line of scrimmage is improving daily and we obviously know he can run and catch the football.  Overall we're really pleased with where he is heading."

Defensive Player of the Day: Tyree Turner, R-Fr., DL, Stockbridge, Ga.
-Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack on Turner: "This is the culmination of the first five days of practice, Tyree has improved so much at the things we have asked him to get better at.  That's what I have been stressing to the guys, can you show improvement at the things that we preach to you and carry those things on the field, and Tyree is doing a really good job of that right now."

Play of the Day: Jalen Thompson stepped in front a wide receiver at the last moment to intercept the third pass of the second team period of the afternoon, with consideration also given to Evan Orth's 20-yard completion to Francis that was threaded between two defenders.

Team period highlights: The first- and second-team offensive units ran nearly 40 plays during two 10-minute periods focused on run and play-action pass calls.

Miscellaneous Notes
-While this marked the Jaguars' fifth practice of the spring campaign, it was the team's first since Wednesday, March 8 due to the school's annual Spring Break.
-It was also the first time this spring that USA has worked out extensively on the grass field rather than the artificial turf surface.
-Rocel McWilliams led the South defense with a sack during both team periods, with Finessé Middleton and T'Qwan Robinson also taking down Jag quarterbacks during the first period.
-Neiko Robinson added a pick during the final team period when he pulled a ball that deflected off the intended wideout's hands out of the air and ran it back down the sideline for a touchdown.
-Francis had three catches during a four-snap stretch of the 7-on-7 passing period.
-During the final team period Xavier Johnson, Deonta Moore and Jalin Buie all broke free beyond the line of scrimmage on three of the first four runs called by the Jag offense.
-The Jaguar defense won the team competition period by stopping the offense two out of three times on third-and-short — including Turner tackling Moore for no gain on third-and-one — while the offense claimed the individual competition period behind the efforts of Buie and Kawaan Baker.

Head coach Joey Jones
-On the Jag's first practice since March 8: "I thought it was average from an execution standpoint, you could tell we were off for 12 days.  The effort was there but it was sloppy, we have to get better and have the guys understand that every day matters.  If we come out here Wednesday and have a better practice we'll get back on track."
-On preparing for the team's first spring scrimmage on Saturday: "We need to have a good, physical practice on Wednesday, and Friday we will back off some.  Saturday is a big day with the scrimmage and Junior Day, it's an important day for a lot of reasons — to show these recruits coming in what we are all about and to also get better as a football team."
-On the slower tempo of practice in the spring thus far: "We feel that we are probably not in shape enough to be able to do that [run at a high tempo] the way we want to do it by the end of the summer.  We are going to ease into that by introducing it toward the end of the spring and work on it in the summer, then we will play with a lot faster tempo."

Up next: USA will be back on the practice fields on campus at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday
 
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