MOBILE, Ala. — It didn’t take long for typical late summer weather in Mobile to affect the University of South Alabama football team’s preseason schedule.

It wasn’t the heavy rains of the afternoon, though, that took the Jaguars off the field; instead, lightning in the area forced head coach Joey Jones to conclude drills after less than an hour on the practice fields on campus Friday.

USA will still practice for the third day in a row Saturday, but instead of going under the lights at night as originally scheduled the Jags will now hit the field at 7:15 a.m.  Per NCAA rules, the team will be allowed to work out in shells and have light contact for the first time this fall.

“We had a lot of good meeting time today, but unfortunately lightning popped and we had to go back inside,” Jones commented.  “We can make it up with good meeting time and walk through time, but the bottom line is we didn’t get in much of a practice.

“But we’ll have a good practice tomorrow morning, I’m looking forward to that.  We were going to practice in the morning starting on Monday anyway — there’s a 20-30 percent chance of rain tomorrow morning, but 40-50 percent chance in the afternoon, so we rolled the dice and will go in the morning.”

In their time on the field Friday, the Jaguars were able to work on individual drills for 35 minutes and go through a 15-minute session as a group before clearing the field.  With meetings and walk throughs prior to practice, USA offensive coordinator Robert Matthews observed that his unit — which is converting to a spread attack under his direction — was not affected by the weather and will be on schedule with the installation of the game plan when the team hits the field on Saturday.

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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