South
Alabama Jaguars are only into their fourth day of practice and it’s seems as
though they are improving and impressing their head coach Joey Jones.
While
it was just one day off, it appears a short break in the University of South
Alabama football team’s preseason camp led to a productive workout to open the
first full week of drills.
The
Jaguars were on the practice fields on campus for nearly three hours Monday
morning, and head coach Joey Jones saw an improvement in the squad’s
performance as well as its fitness.
“I
thought it was a very good day, we definitely got better in practice today,” he
observed. “There were some mistakes — they always happen — but overall I
thought we improved. The kids came to practice; it was almost a
three-hour practice out here and they gave great effort. We had a little
lull in the middle, but they fought through and got better at the end.
We’re learning and fighting through, we didn’t have anyone cramping today, so
it was much better.”
Conducted in shells, the practice — USA’s fourth of the fall — began with over 40 minutes of individual work on both sides of the ball. When inside drills began, wide receivers and defensive backs continued to challenge each other one-on-one, and after a five-minute break the offense ran 16 plays against the defense in the first of two team segments of practice.
The
Jags also conducted a pair of 10-minute 7-on-7 passing skeleton periods, one in
the open field and one near the end zone. It was there that Jones noticed
one of the areas he feels that USA has made strides in since the end of the
2011 campaign.
“In
the secondary at the corner position our coverage is much better,” he
noted. “They are playing a lot of man-to-man and able to cover
guys. They got beat a couple of times, but the coverage there is getting
much better in the secondary.”
The
final team period saw the Jaguars run over 20 plays from midfield with C.J.
Bennett completing passes to five different receivers highlighted by a 20-yard
throw to Greg Hollinger down the left sideline. Jake Howton caught
multiple balls during the session, one from Bennett and one from Trey Fetner.
“I’m
anxious to see what will happen,” said Jones. “It’s not going to change
much, we’re not going to tackle a lot, it’s going to be similar to today.
Inevitably, when you get the pads on it livens up a little bit, I think
something triggers in their heads that they are supposed to go a little
harder. We’re looking forward to it — the great thing about it is you can
have the ones go against each other on the line of scrimmage, you can really
get something done without worrying about anybody getting hurt.”
The
workout will start at 7:15 a.m. and take place on campus.
South
Alabama season opener will be at home against UTSA on ESPN3.
