Date: 8/2
Time: 9 a.m.-11 a.m. (CDT)
Place: James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility
Practice attire: Shells (helmets and shoulder pads)
Offensive Player of the Day: Dominic Esposito, Sr., OL, Springfield, Va.
-Offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent on Esposito: "Dom is coming off offseason surgery and was fully cleared about two weeks ago, but he's really had four solid days. He obviously understands the offense since he started last year. He has come back and has been physically and mentally tough, he's fighting through each rep each practice, he's making all the calls and providing some leadership up front, which is what we need."
Defensive Player of the Day: Malcolm Buggs, Jr., S, Opelika, Ala.
-Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack on Buggs: "Malcolm won our award a couple of days ago, but he is a player who continues to make plays in a position where we had a senior in Kalen Jackson who did such a good job last year; there hasn't been much of a drop off in that production. What is so impressive is the way that Malcolm not only plays on the field but his understanding of what we're trying to do fundamentally."
Play of the Day: During each of the final two series of the run and play-action pass call drill, the Jaguar quarterbacks were able to hit a pair of 60-yard touchdown passes. Evan Orth connected with Kawaan Baker on the second play of the second series for the second-team unit, while Wyatt Wilkerson found Davyn Flenord in the middle of the field for a touchdown on his first throw of the drill.
Team period highlights: South Alabama began and ended practice with a pair 16-play team periods lasting 10 minutes each, while also adding in a 15-minute drill working on run and play-action pass calls in the middle of the two-hour session.. The first team segment focused on the red zone, while the last worked on third-and-medium situations.
Miscellaneous Notes
-The Jags had a pair of special teams periods first working on field goals and the second focusing on punt coverage.
-During the field-goal porting, the South kickers were a combined 7-of-8 from distances of 26-, 33-, 38- and 40 yards away with Gavin Patterson connecting on all four of his attempts.
-In the 12-minute 7-on-7 skeleton drill, the Jag quarterbacks combined to connect on 15 of their 22 pass attempts while Cole Garvin was 8-of-10 with a pair of touchdowns.
-The two touchdowns during the skeleton drill came on a 40-yard strike to Jamarius Way and a 25-yard reception by Sa'Mory Collier.
-Messiah Francis had a team-high three receptions during the segment, while Jordan McCray and Way each had two apiece.
-Devin Rockette posted both of his pass break ups on back-to-back plays during the first series against the second-team unit.
-The USA defense held a solid advantage in the third-and-medium session taking 11 of the 16 snaps and opening up the period by not allowing a first down on nine of the first 10 plays.
-Over the final three team periods, the Jag defense came up with seven pass break ups and a pair of coverage sacks.
-Buggs and Rockette each had a pair of pass break ups during those same periods.
Head coach Joey Jones
-On the play of the defense in the red zone: "I thought our defense, especially the ones, were dominant today down in the red zone. We had a couple of good throws by our offense into the end zone, but for the most part the defense really seemed to dominate in that area."
-On the play of the wide receivers early on in camp: "We've got some receivers who are talented and long who can run, so we should have some big-play potential this season, but we've also got to be able to run the football. Our offense still has some things to work on, but once our offensive line gets the feel of what they are being taught, I believe that we can be dominant offensively if we are able to run it with the play makers that we have outside."
-On what has stood out to him most about this team four practices in: "The defensive line and how much better we are there. With all the injuries that we had, we were depleted at that position and had to play a lot of young players; but now our twos and threes were the ones playing [last season] and it's great to see depth on the defensive line."
-On getting into full pads for the first time on Friday: "Until you go live [in full pads] you can't really see your weaknesses. I think that we can learn from some of the weaknesses we saw out of the field today on both sides of the ball. We can look at the film and use it to teach and make adjustments and then come back out on the field and try to get better at those things we didn't do very well. It's a step-by-step process and we just have to continue to get better. I told our players yesterday that we aren't even thinking about any of our opponents yet, but to just get better each day. If we do that, we will be a better team at the end of the season."
Up next: South Alabama will not practice on the field Thursday but return to the James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility Friday morning in full pads for the first time scheduled for 9-11 a.m.
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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—USA—
