Date: 4/5
Time: 3:30-5:30 p.m. (CDT)
Place: James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility
Practice attire: Full pads
Offensive Player of the Day: Dallas Davis, Jr., QB, Panama City, Fla.
-Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield on Davis: "We didn't have a great practice the last time we were out so I challenged those guys to be a leader and step up. I think Dallas did a really good job of that, and he a good, productive practice; he was on point today."
Defensive Player of the Day: Nigel Lawrence, Jr., S, Smiths Station, Ala.
-Defensive coordinator Greg Stewart on Lawrence: "Nigel is basically the quarterback of the defense. They threw a bunch of stuff at us today including unbalanced sets where he had get everybody set and lined up, and he did a good job."
Play of the Day: With his first touch of the opening team period of the afternoon, Maurice Mayo made a sudden cut that forced the defender to miss and allowed him to go up the field for a long gain.
Team period highlights: The Jaguars went through three periods — each 10 minutes long — during which both the first- and second-team units alternated brief series running plays on all three downs.
Miscellaneous Notes
-In team period action, Davis completed each of his first three attempts; that included finding Malik Stanley for a 28-yard touchdown on the last of those throws.
-Evan Orth connected with Jahmmir Taylor twice for touchdowns, with the quarterback — who was 4-of-4 passing in team periods — also scoring on a 19-yard run.
-Cle Garvin was 6-of-7 passing over the final 45 minutes of practice as well.
-Jamarius Way led the offense with three catches, while Davyn Flenord and Tra Minter each added a pair of receptions.
-South's defense posted four sacks in team period action, with Bull Barge accounting for one solo and one shared.
-Chris Henderson and Rocel McWilliams had unassisted sacks also, and Tyree Turner was credited with an assist in collaboration with Barge.
-The program will hold its annual Pro Day Friday, which will begin at 9 a.m. with testing in the football field house.
Head coach Steve Campbell
-On what he saw in practice on Thursday: "Our execution was a lot better than it was on Tuesday. It was our second day back out after the break, you could see the second and third time going over some things it was much better execution. I thought we made some plays today offensively, and defensively we did some good things in our pass rush. It was a productive day. Today was practice No. 10, and I would say nine of them have been very, very productive. We're a better football team than we were four hours ago."
-On his goals for the team's upcoming scrimmage: "I want to see clean football, I want to see the things we've been working on. You're 11 practices in and throwing a lot at them, it's hard to be good at everything right now; you're not going to be. But there are some things that we're getting better at, I want to see us continue to improve in ball security, making some plays down the field — we did that today, I want to see it in a scrimmage situation — and be able to move the ball offensively on the ground. I think we have a pretty good defensive line, if we can generate some stuff on the ground that will take pressure off the quarterbacks and help us in the play-action game. I don't care who you are, you're not going to drop back and throw it every snap, that means you have to be able to run the football. Defensively it's the converse, you don't want to see big plays — you want to make them take the long haul — and try to create a couple of turnovers."
Up next: USA's second scrimmage of the spring is slated to get underway on campus at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/sports/2013/3/13/Gridiron%20Club.aspx?id=22
—USA—
