Panthers Spring Game in the Dome

If you are a Georgia State fans you are invited to get your first look at the 2013 football team under head coach Trent Miles on Saturday, April 20 at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Dome and admission is free.

Georgia State will offer a pregame community event in conjunction with Team Tiger and a postgame autograph session on the field with the entire team and coaching staff. Fans will be invited on the field to participate in a team photo immediately after the scrimmage, and free schedule posters will be distributed.

The scrimmage represents the 15th and final session of spring practice for Miles and the Panthers as they prepare for the program’s move to the FBS and the Sun Belt Conference beginning July 1^st, 2013.

The team will go through position drills, group work and special teams’ drills, followed by a controlled scrimmage session with the first-team offense going against the first-team defense, and the second-team offense battling the second-team defense. Quarterbacks Ben McLane, Clay Chastain and Ronnie Bell will rotate with the units.

The team will go through warm-ups beginning at 12:20 p.m., return to the locker room and then take the field at 1 p.m. Special teams sessions and position drills will alternate with controlled scrimmage sessions.

It’s T-Day in Troy

If a Trojans fans want to see what Troy is offering in 2013, then today is the day to come out and see. At 11:00am at Veterans Memorial Stadium Troy will take the field to showcase what they have learned in the spring and what to expect this fall.

It's hard to say what the defense is made of at this point since there were a lot of holes to fill during the spring. The secondary has injuries but not of concern.

Troy has seen a losing season for the past two years and they are trying to find their light somewhere to bounce back to where they were on the top of the Sun Belt Conference. The Trojans have some signees that will come in this fall that will also make a impact on the team. 

Cajuns Ready For Today's Red & White Spring Game

The Ragin' Cajuns wants to continue a winning season!

The rehearsals are all complete, the Ragin’ Cajuns football team has been split up and both teams are ready for Saturday afternoon’s Red vs. White spring game.

The game will be the final practice of the spring season for the Cajuns, who are coming off of back-to-back nine win seasons and New Orleans Bowl titles.

During Friday afternoon’s practice, the 14th of 15 spring practices and the final session before the spring game, the Cajuns did their final prep for the spring game.

The squad was split in two for the second half of the practice, with one team practicing outside and the other in the Moncla Indoor facility.  The time allowed the teams to install some special plays and formations for the spring game.

Head coach Mark Hudspeth, who is coaching neither team on Saturday, was thrilled with the practice.

“Our guys brought the spirit and energy today,” Hudspeth said.  “They were excited about being getting ready to compete against each other in front of a large crowd and it showed in their effort.”

With the end of spring practice less than 24 hours away, Hudspeth outlined what he expected on Saturday.

“I want our guys to go out on the field and do all of the things that we worked on the last five weeks.  Our hard work needs to carry over to the spring game so I expect them to practice their fundamentals, work hard and I would like to see our playmakers, especially our young playmakers, step up,” Hudspeth added.

Hudspeth has taken a different approach towards dividing the team into the two units this year.  Last year, the players had a draft to set the teams.  This year, Hudspeth has stocked the Red team with the majority of the first team offense while most of the first team defense is on the White squad.

To finish off the teams, the White squad features the second team offense while the second team defense is on the Red team.

Terrance Broadway, the MVP of the New Orleans Bowl last season, will quarterback the Red team and will wear the blue jersey on Saturday as the only player on the field who can’t be hit by the defense.

Redshirt freshman D’Shaie Landor will backup Broadway on the Red team while both Brooks Haack and Jalen Nixon will quarterback the White squad.

Hudspeth noted following the practice that Nixon will take on an additional role.  Besides seeing time as the backup quarterback, he will also take reps in the back field.

“Injuries have limited our depth in the backfield for Saturday so we are going to go ahead and let Jalen take some snaps at running back,” Hudspeth said.

“This is something we thought about more and more as spring practice progressed.  When it looked like Jalen was going to be our fourth string quarterback, we talked about other ways to get an athlete with his talent on the field so we thought we’d try him in the backfield.  He’s 6-2, 230 pounds and I can only imagine the kind of one-two punch we’d have with him and Alonzo Harris (6-1, 22) running,” Hudspeth said.

Hudspeth reminded fans to get to campus early on Saturday and use the north end of the Cajun Field parking lot.

“Come early and tailgate and then enjoy the game,” Hudspeth said.  “After the game we’d like our fans to come on down on the field for autographs and pictures.

“Saturday should be a great day,” Hudspeth added.

South Alabama Blue team wins 2013 spring game 33-24

South Alabama held its Annual Spring Game on Saturday at Ladd Pebbles Stadium. The Jags play a spring game that was full of excitement and very physical. 

In front of a big crowd at Ladd Pebbles Stadium, attendance is unknown at this time; the Jags really showed that they are determined to be better in 2013 than they were last season. In Saturday spring game the Blue team made the first scoring drive led by Quarterbacks Brandon Bridge and Trey Fretner. Even head coach Joey Jones think his team perform well on Saturday than before.

The improvements I seen during Saturday game was the tempo of the Jags offense under the direction of Coordinator Robert Matthews. South Alabama two offenses (Blue & Red) combined for 666 yards of total offense, the Blue coming in with the most at 362. Blue quarterback Brandon Bridge was 10-of-18 passing for 169 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Bridge is competing for the starting spot and is an eligible to play this season after transferring from Alcon State last season. Bridge showed that he has a quick and strong arm and able to connect with players. Brandon also can run, he doesn’t mind running the ball if he has to and when there is an opportunity.

Also on the Blue team QB Trey Fetner of the Blue; Fretner scored a pair of touchdowns, both on 1-yard runs. He carried the ball six times for 35 yards and also threw for 51 yards. Fretner also is a running quarterback; he don’t mind running the ball.

South Alabama offense produce more running in their offense than before, that’s a plus in this new spread fast tempo offense the Jags is adapting.

Red team offense came back with some answers but not enough for defeat the Blue team. The Red team was led by QB Ross Methany, Grant Powell and Kolt Peavy.  Methany the starting QB going into spring game was 7-of-11 for 78 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Methany carried the ball three times for 14 yards.

E.J May picked off two of the passes with Tyrell Pearson getting the other of QB Ross Methany. Redshirt freshman Grant Powell was 5-of-9 for 41 yards and had six carries for 40 yards. Kolt Peavey was 5-of-7 for 41 yards passing and had three carries for 18 yards.

On Defense I seen better play on the field than last season, I believe the defense is getter after the Quarterback more quickly and there are more physical than before. This is an area of improvements that will help the Jags win some of those close games like the one at Mississippi State and Arkansas State last season.

The Blue defense was led by Qudarius Ford and Cordivido Grice with seven stops each. May, Enrique Williams, Pearson and Bryson James had five stops each. The Red defense was led by Eric Miller's six stops. Hawkins and Ceasare Johnson had five each and Desmond LaVelle had four. Alex Page had the game's only sack.

I can say that is a much improved team than last year and previous years. I see bigger players and more experience in the game. Go Jaguars!