MOBILE, Ala. – It is not unusual for football coaches to embrace the concept of competition.  The more of it they see in practice, the better they feel about those individuals who find their way onto the field in games throughout the fall.

But with the University of South Alabama football program, coaches aren't the only people who are enjoying the on-going daily competition at numerous positions as preseason camp proceeds.  The student-athletes are up for the challenge too.

"Competition brings the best out of everyone," stated senior quarterback Ross Metheny.

"The thing I like the most is that we compete," added Jay Jones, a junior running back.  "We're all friends on and off the field, but we're competing with each other and helping each other get better at the same time.  I've never been around a group of running backs like this."

Both positions are certainly at the forefront for USA's staff on the offensive side of the ball, with battles for the starting nod at both likely to continue throughout camp.  At quarterback, Metheny is coming off a year during which he set nearly every program season passing standard after completing 189-of-345 attempts for 2,148 yards and 12 touchdowns.  The left-hander threw for a school game-record 360 yards at Louisiana-Lafayette in the team's Sun Belt Conference finale — hitting on 27-of-44 attempts — and he was also 24-of-38 passing for 241 yards and three scores at league champion Arkansas State.

Metheny is being pushed by junior Brandon Bridge, who sat out last fall after transferring from Alcorn State.  Bridge — who completed 10-of-18 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns in the spring game — accounted for 2,687 yards of total offense as a freshman for the Braves.

"Brandon [Bridge] is a good player, he's improved a lot since last year," explained Metheny.  "I've improved my game since last year too, though.  We feed off of and learn from each other, just try and help each other get better.  I think it's been good so far for us."

"Right now Ross and Brandon are battling daily," quarterbacks coach Bryant Vincent observed.  "Ross entered the fall as the No. 1 guy — he was our starting quarterback last year — and he has had a phenomenal fall.  Brandon seems to get better every day; he's trying to push Ross — which he is — and Ross has responded.  They both are great leaders, intelligent and work extremely hard, so it [the competition] is a good thing.

"Both guys are pushing each other, they are very positive toward and care about each other," he continued.  "It's a good situation we are in right now.  Obviously we have a great competition going and as everybody knows, competition brings the best out of everybody."

The Jaguars have five quarterbacks in camp this month.  As a redshirt freshman a year ago, Trey Fetner carried 13 times for 30 yards and a pair of scores, and in the spring game he reached the end zone twice from one yard out.  Grant Powell redshirted last season, though he too is a threat running the ball — in addition to leading his team with 40 yards on the ground in the Red-Blue contest in April, he completed 5-of-9 passes for 41 more yards.  Joining the program this fall is Brett Sheehan, who connected on 185-of-276 pass attempts for 2,351 yards and 22 touchdowns as a high school senior despite missing three games due to injury.

"Every day is extremely important for them to progress with what we are doing.  We've seen a lot of crazy things happen where you look up and your third guy is in the game," Vincent said of the younger quarterbacks.  "Trey has had a really good fall camp, I've been really pleased with him and his grasp of the offense.  He's always had a tremendous work ethic, character and leadership ability, but his accuracy, his grasp of the offense and all the other little things have been a great surprise — not that we didn't think he could do it, but you have to see it.

"Grant is throwing the ball well, he's big and strong and the ball is coming out of his hand well.  He just has to dig in and get a better grasp of the offense," he added.  "Our plan all along has been to redshirt Brett, and he knows that.  But the thing that has impressed me with Brett is his football IQ; where he is at right now as a true freshman is impressive."

At running back, Jones ended the spring campaign listed as the starter on the depth chart; in the Red-Blue game, he scored both on a seven-yard reception as well as a two-yard run in the first half.  As a freshman at Northwest Mississippi C.C. Jones collected 920 yards on the ground while also catching 27 passes for 281 yards, while a year ago he recorded 504 rushing yards and 150 receiving at Northeast Mississippi C.C.

But he is far from the only option for offensive coordinator Robert Matthews.  The Jags return Kendall Houston and Terrance Timmons from last year's squad, after they rushed for 217 and 212 yards, respectively.  In fact, the former is the school's all-time leader with 1,666 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground.  Julien Valentin is the lone senior in the group, coming back for his final year after leading USA with 34 yards at ULL and carrying nine times in the season finale at Hawai'i.  Also competing for playing time in the offensive backfield are Cris Dinham, who stood fifth at the National Junior College Athletic Association level in 2012 with an average of 126.5 yards per contest, as well as freshmen Kaleb Blanchard and Xavier Johnson.  Blanchard ranks second all-time at Denham Springs (La.) High with 3,079 rushing yards while Johnson posted over 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior at Chamberlain H.S. in Tampa, Fla.

"I think the competition has raised their game tremendously, you can tell there is a different intensity with the way they are practicing," said Matthews.  "If you're threatened, I think that does it to you; competition makes us all better.  And our job is to give the best players on this team the opportunity to compete and then play the best ones.  And they are responsible for who plays — who performs in practice, who shows us that they can be dependable in the game, those are the guys who are going to step on the field first on Saturdays.

"Jay has had a really good summer, he's a guy that can run and has continued to improve so we are excited about what he gives us," Matthews commented.  "Cris is another transfer who came in this summer and had a good first couple days of practice; we've seen signs that he is what we thought he was going to be, so that's a positive.  Our two freshmen have both shown signs that we have recruited the right guys, we're excited about what their future holds.

"Kendall looks faster than he did last season, which is a good thing, and Terrance had a fantastic offseason; he's put on some weight, is practicing extremely hard and has made a couple of plays out there.  Julien is very solid, he can catch the ball out of the backfield and has very good vision as far as finding the run lanes."

Adding depth in the offseason was a key for the Jaguars, who started three individuals at running back in '12 and saw five garner a double-digit carry total.

"There are more guys, so that certainly helps," Matthews stated.  "At the running back position you're going to have injuries, they get tackled and hit the ground during games — you're not going to have any college football team in the country that is going to have one running back stay healthy the whole season.  So those guys all have to prepare like they are going to be the starter, which is what we tell them.  Hopefully bringing in two new guys who are older, having three returners in their second year in the offense and two younger guys who show flashes that they can potentially be able to handle it as well has improved our depth."

"In Division I football you're going to need more than two running backs, and I feel that all these guys bring different elements to the team," Jones said of the group.  "Any position is going to need depth, all the new guys are going to help with that this year."

While the group presents Matthews with different options based on skill sets, the ones who prove they can handle more than one facet of the game will be who takes a prominent role in the Jag offense in the fall.  "Certain guys have certain strengths, some are faster than others and are outside-the-box runners versus inside-the-box runners," Matthews commented.  "But ultimately, we can't call plays based exactly on who is in the game, so they really have to be able to do it all.  We might like one guy to run a play over another guy and will try to get that in the best we can, but for them to be successful — and for us to be successful — they need to be a complete back where they can be an inside runner, an outside runner, a pass-pro guy, and be able to catch the ball out of the backfield.

"That's what we're striving to teach them to do."  

One of the reasons why both coaches are pleased thus far through one week of fall camp is that the student-athletes are much further along than at the same time last season, the first in which USA featured a spread attack.

"Where we are at right now is light years ahead of last year," stated Vincent.  "Ross didn't get here until the end of July because he was graduating from Virginia in three years, so he got here and learned it on the fly.  Ross' football IQ is off the charts; for him to come in and win the starting job by game five, to be able to do that in a short amount of time, says a lot about his work ethic.

"And Brandon was on the scout team last fall, he didn't get any reps," Vincent continued.  "His first real snaps were in the spring, and you could tell in the spring that Ross was just comfortable.  Then they came back and had a great summer, those guys were very driven and worked extremely hard.  Now that we are in fall camp, they have a better grasp of what we're doing.  In my opinion, Ross is very solid with what we're doing offensively and Brandon seems to improve by leaps and bounds daily."

"It's a lot smoother for us offensively, we're more comfortable with the offense; how plays are called, the tempo we need to play with, the verbage," Metheny said.  "We're playing faster and with more confidence, you can see a difference in practice so far and we're looking to keep improving as camp goes on.  The first couple days of camp our tempo was phenomenal, the coaches were having to slow us down — which is a good thing, because we want to play fast.  We want to be a physical football team that plays fast, and with pads on for the first time it was a good indicator of us being that team."

With more new members of the program looking to make an impact behind Metheny and his fellow quarterbacks, the pace of practice at the start of the preseason potentially could've been problematic in the development of the team's running backs.  But according to Jones, the group has used its time off the field to make the transition as seamless as possible.

"It's been hard picking up the offense because the tempo is so fast, but we've been able to pick it up because we take our film sessions very serious," he commented.  "We pay attention in film sessions, and [graduate assistant] coach [Nolan] Hughey helps us a lot outside of the normal schedule; if we don't have meetings we can call him if we have a question.  This first week, we've picked it up faster than I thought we would."

Officially, the Jaguars don't compete until Thursday, Aug. 29, when the season begins with a home contest against Southern Utah.  Don't tell that to those in the program looking for playing time in the fall.

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).

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