MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football team has been working hard for the last two weeks, practicing on all but one of those 14 days, so head coach Joey Jones figured it was time to reward the players for their efforts.

“Hopefully this will help us take care of our players,” he observed.  “It was still an hour and 45 minutes, but a good 30 minutes shorter than what we normally do.  We’re just trying not to drive them in the ground, so this is a reward in some ways for how hard they have been working.

“I think they responded to that and had a good day.  With off days tomorrow and Sunday, hopefully by Monday they will return with their legs somewhat back.”

The Jaguars will attend Camp Grace on Friday instead of working out, and will be back on the field Saturday when the program takes part in its second full scrimmage of preseason drills.  That practice will start at 9 a.m. at the fields on campus and will be open to the public.

Highlights of Thursday’s workout session saw the first-team offense run first-and-10 plays from their own 35-yard line while the second-team unit faced third-down situations from the same area of the field.  On the initial first-team series, Myles Gibbon found Santuan McGee in the flat for a 15-yard pickup, and on the next play Brandon Ross ran for a gain of more than 10 yards as well.  Ross and McGee also had runs of 10-plus yards on the second set of plays for the first team.

The defense turned back the second-team on all but one third-down play, recording a sack before Gibbon picked up a low snap and scrambled to move the chains.

That segment of practice was preceded by both the offense and defense working against scout teams, while earlier in the session seven-on-seven skeleton passing drills began with the former in the red zone and ended when the unit faced third down inside its own 20-yard line.

With this week’s work completed until the scrimmage, Jones noted that the Jags’ lineup for the fall is starting to come together.  “We’re obviously not going to make any decisions until Saturday, but we can see that things are starting to fall into place in certain areas,” he said.

Where that will affect the program is in the following weeks leading up to the Sept. 4 season opener against Pikeville (Ky.), as the focus will turn to those players on the first- and second-teams.

“We try to give the ones anywhere from 60 to 65 percent of the reps, and then you start sprinkling in the twos and a little bit with the threes at the end,” Jones explained.  “That’s about all you can do to get enough reps for everybody and have a chance to win.”

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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