South
Alabama is preparing for the biggest season of their football program, as they
enter into the Sun Belt Conference and Football Bowl Subdivision play.
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| South Alabama Football Team |
Preseason
practice for the University of South Alabama football program will begin under
the lights, as the Jaguars will take the field for the first time this fall at
6:30 p.m. Thursday at the fields on campus.
USA
will also work out at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday before receiving a day
off to close out the weekend. The Jags’ first full week of drills will
see the squad practice in the mornings as in years past, with sessions for five
straight days beginning at 7:15 a.m.
“We’re
very excited. We’ve had a chance to get away from each other a little bit
this summer because we can’t practice,” Jag head coach Joey Jones
observed. “But you can see the look in everyone’s eyes, they are ready to
go. I know the players and coaches are looking forward to this year, so
it is a pretty exciting time.”
Ready
Go they have to be; the South Alabama Jaguars will face the toughest
competition of their program history this fall. As we are on the countdown to
the opening game, the Jaguars must get it right in these preseason practices
and drills. Because when August 30th comes it will be time to play
football.
The
Jaguars will take part in three fall scrimmages, with the first two slated to
be held on back-to-back Saturdays — Aug. 11 and 18 — at 8 a.m., while the final
one will take place on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 23; that’s one week prior
to USA’s season-opening matchup with Texas-San Antonio at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The
Jags will practice twice on Thursday, Aug. 9 and Thursday, Aug. 16, and will be
off on Sunday, Aug. 12, Monday, Aug. 20 — the first days of fall semester
classes — and Saturday, Aug. 25; they will also have a team exercise off campus
on Friday, Aug. 17.
The
opening of camp marks the culmination of the efforts of 100-plus individuals in
the program, who began training for the 2012 season when the spring semester
started in January. “We challenged our kids back in January when they
returned to school — we needed to have a great offseason through the spring and
a great spring training, and the summer was very critical for our chances to be
successful in the fall,” commented Jones. “I think they have done what
they needed to do. They were challenged early, and I think they followed
through. What I am most pleased with is that we have leadership with 13
captains who have groups underneath them that we have been meeting with weekly;
I have really seen our leadership grow in the last six months, it has been incredible.
USA
has recording a winning record in each of its first three seasons of
competition after concluding the 2011 campaign with a 6-4 mark, going 23-4
overall during that span.
