MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football program will begin its initial preseason camp under the direction of first-year head coach Kane Wommack with practices each day this weekend starting on Friday.

"We put a premium on playing the game of football year round, so our guys have done a great job learning our offensive and defensive systems and they know what to do on special teams.  They have had an urgency to go out there and execute it on their own in their player practices," said Wommack.  "In terms of a first-year program, I feel like we are going to walk into fall camp with an advantage because of the commitment that our players have made over the summertime."

The team will work out Friday morning, as well as on Saturday and Sunday, for approximately two hours at the James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility, with each session slated to get underway at 10 a.m. (CDT).  The Jaguars will also practice on Monday at 10 a.m. prior to their first day off of the fall.

South returns to the field on Wednesday and will work out three days in a row prior to the first of two preseason scrimmages scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug. 14 at Hancock Whitney Stadium.  After a day off, the Jags are slated to conduct four straight practices the first week of classes — which officially begin on Tuesday, Aug. 17 — with another off day prior to the program's Saturday, Aug. 21 scrimmage.

"The goal is to bang the install into our players' heads day after day, you want them so confident in what they do that they are more focused on how to do it when it matters most on game day," Wommack said.  "For us, that means transitioning from the spring and summertime and learning what we are doing defensively, offensively and on special teams to knowing how to do it — the physicality you have to play the game with, the way you have to stem someone in your routes, or the way you have to get your hands on somebody defensively or make a tackle — with confidence in fall camp."

On Monday, Aug. 23, the Jaguars will hold the first of five consecutive practice sessions with the final one that Friday a mock game.  USA will have the following weekend off and then enter game-week preparations for its season-opening match-up against Southern Mississippi, which is set for kickoff at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4.

"I don't think for anyone in our building it's about getting them excited, everybody is so excited for that moment that my job is to keep them focused on the process in order to accomplish the things we want to on game day," said Wommack.  "We're focused on the details and the process of doing our job so well that come game day it's just old habit."

The Jaguars return 59 letterwinners — including 17 starters — this fall and have added 37 newcomers since the end of the 2020 season.  That total includes 14 individuals who have arrived from another NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision program.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics.  Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

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