MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football program took another step forward in its development Thursday when it practiced in pads for the first time this spring.
The Jaguars were on the fields on campus for two hours in the fourth of 15 workouts this semester following a two-day break.
“It was real lively, I thought the kids got after it a little more than the last practice,” observed Jag head coach Joey Jones. “We have a ways to go offensively, but I thought it was better. The guys have to remember that it is not going to happen overnight, they have to come out every day and work. If they learn to do that, then we are going to be a really good football team.
“The tempo of our offense is just great. The kids are doing pretty well picking it up even though they have a lot of things to think about. What we have to shore up is technical — who we are blocking and how we are blocking them. But they are getting lined up and understand what they are doing; they have done a good job studying their playbooks.”
Offensively, during a 50-minute team period in the middle of the session, the Jaguars worked for 10 minutes on screens and another 10 on route concepts. Once the offense and defense got together for 45 minutes the second half of practice, the two lines worked against each other both in one-on-one pass rush drills as well as with half the offensive line against two defenders up front. During that time, the rest of both units took part in 15 minutes of skeleton passing drills.
There was also a 10-minute period with the offense working on down-and-distance plays followed by 10 minutes of third-down situations, with both coming against the defense in the 11-on-11 segment of practice. The workout ended with special teams going through kickoff coverage drills.
“It was good because that’s the only way you can evaluate these guys, and one of our goals is to try and fill our one- and two-deep,” Jones said of practicing in pads for the first time. “The only way you can evaluate them is by putting pads on and blocking full speed. That’s valuable for us.
“They were ready to hit somebody. They’ve been lifting weights and running, so it makes for a more fun practice as well.”
What made the practice session so valuable to the USA coaching staff is the limited number of opportunities to work out in full pads with contact during the offseason. “We’ve only got so many chances in the spring, you’ve really got about eight days that you can tackle,” Jones explained. “Other than that, it’s just skelly and one-on-ones with no tackling; it’s kind of hard to get better on the offensive and defensive line. So we’ve got to take advantage of each chance we have to get better.”
With USA now a week into spring practice, Jones addressed the development of the new offensive system being put into place for the 2012 campaign, a spread attack.
“We’ve probably gotten better in some areas, but if I’m asked whether it’s anywhere close to being a cohesive unit I would say no. That’s to be expected,” he commented. “I want to look at the end of the spring to see where we are as compared to the first one [practice], because what you want each day is just a little bit of progress. It’s not enough to be great, but if we can do that by the end of the spring we will be decent.”
The Jaguars will be in full pads again when they practice on campus at 9 a.m. Saturday, though it will not be one of the three scrimmages the team will go through in the spring.
“It won’t be a total scrimmage, it will be much like today except with tackling,” Jones stated. “Any time you put them under the lights, so to speak, you can watch and see; they know the film is on them, it’s live and in color, so you can evaluate much better.”
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
