Date: 3/13
Time: 3:30-5:30 p.m. (CDT)
Place: James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility
Practice attire: Full pads
Offensive Player of the Day: Maurice Mayo, So., RB, Homewood, Ala.
-Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield on Mayo: "Maurice had a really good day. He's a walk-on running back who waited his turn, we hadn't noticed him a lot and then all of a sudden he gets in there and makes four runs at the end of practice. He had a really good opportunity to show something today, and he did that."
Defensive Player of the Day: Nigel Lawrence, Jr., S, Smiths Station, Ala.
-Defensive coordinator Greg Stewart on Lawrence: "I think Nigel showed up today. They [safeties] have a lot of pressure on them back there, we force them to make a lot of adjustments and I know before practices we stress setting edges. I thought he did a really good job today."
Play of the Day: During the second of three team periods, Dallas Davis connected with Jamarius Way for a 32-yard touchdown, with the junior wide receiver making the catch over the defender in front of him.
Team period highlights: All three team periods saw both the first- and second-team offensive units mixing run and pass calls on first and second downs.
Miscellaneous Notes
-Although it was the Jaguars' first spring practice in full pads, the defense was restricted in tackling.
-South worked on different aspects of special teams at three times throughout the day, with a pair of five-minute periods and one period 10 minutes in length.
-Way also caught a long touchdown pass during 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills — he had five receptions on the day — with Jordan McCray and Malik Stanley also recording scoring catches in those periods.
-Stanley posted four receptions and McCray chipped in with three in the practice.
-In addition to Mayo's runs, Deonta Moore had a pair of big gains in the final team period of the afternoon.
-All three running backs on the depth chart entering spring practice made at least one catch out of the backfield, with Tywun Walters finishing the day with three receptions and Moore supplying two.
-Cole Garvin completed 12-of-13 pass attempts — hitting on each of his last nine throws — with a pair of touchdowns the second half of practice.
-Junior-college transfer Jordon Beaton was credited with back-to-back tackles for loss in the last team period.
-During the second team period, after Jalen Thompson intercepted a pass the Jaguar defense followed with consecutive pass break ups from Nick Mobley and DJ Daniels.
Head coach Steve Campbell
-On the team's first practice in full pads: "It was the first day you got to do real football. It was a typical first day in pads, there were things you expect to see. I was pleased with the energy the guys finished with, the effort was good. I liked the way the guys worked. We're basically starting from scratch and trying to put building blocks into place, and I think we put a couple in place today; now we have to build on that the next practice. Now you see the things you need to improve at — protecting the ball, snaps — are little things that you take for granted. I saw some definite bright spots on both sides of the football, now we have to keep implementing and installing the scheme and keep getting better fundamentally."
-On what he wants to see in the team's first scrimmage: "Those things that showed up today — ball security, the missed assignments — you can correct as long as the guys are playing hard. We have to understand pad level and communication. The only way to do it is to go through it, you can't take a pill and just play lower. You have to do it, go back out do it again, go back and do it again. The things we need to improve at are things you can't see on film, they are things you have to go out and do over and over and over again to create habits. I like the energy and the enthusiasm, you can see the guys are trying to do what we are asking them to do."
Up next: South will practice once again in full pads beginning at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility.
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