MOBILE, Ala. – The last time the University of South Alabama football team went through a standard two-hour practice, head coach Joey Jones was less than pleased with the Jaguars’ performance. Following a situational scrimmage and two days off for the student-athletes, Jones’ review of Monday’s workout at the fields on campus was much more positive.
This even though the Jags not only had to contend with practice, but the first day of fall semester classes on campus.
“I thought it was a great practice, especially for the first day of classes. Usually that’s a bad one because they have their minds on school, pretty girls coming to class and those kinds of things,” said Jones. “They were focused this morning, it was a really good sign. I think giving them Saturday and Sunday off really helped.”
Though fall camp concluded on Friday, Monday’s practice was structured in much the same way as drills the first two weeks of the preseason. USA began the day working on kickoff returns, moving to screens drills on offense before two-vs.-one battles to end the individual period.
The Jaguars participated in 15 minutes of 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills, then the offense and defense worked for a half-hour against scout teams installing plays for the season opener against West Alabama.
A 10-minute team segment had the offense picking up defensive blitz packages, with the first and second-team units getting five snaps apiece. On the first play of the drill, C.J. Bennett hit Corey Waldon on a crossing route, but the offense would manage just one other completion — on an out route from Bennett to Paul Bennett — the rest of the way. The defense had sacks recorded by Cori Barnett and Romelle Jones against the first team and Desmond Jones against the second, while both Damond Smith and Alex Page broke up pass attempts by second-team quarterbacks.
“We had some good situational stuff done today with the third-down blitz [drill], the defense did a good job of getting to the quarterback today,” Jones stated. “They looked a little fresher on defense, which I thought was good. We’re starting to game plan now, the kids have been watching film on West Alabama.”
The morning ended with the kickoff coverage unit on the field.
Tuesday’s workout will start at 6:45 a.m.
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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