Two Basketball Players Dismissed; Cotton Joins Football Team
Basketball
On Monday, it was announced that South Alabama head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow dismissed Labree Sledge and Kentari Nettles from the basketball program. Both signed National Letter of Intents with South Alabama in November and enrolled in summer school classes but violated team and University rules.
Coach Arrow had this to say about Sledge and Nettles, “Due to recent circumstances we felt like it would be in the best interest of both the program and the individuals involved that we part ways at this time. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.”
Sledge averaged 9.8 points per game while attending Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. Nettles attended LeFlore High School and led them to the 5A semifinals in 2008.
Football
It’s official, Raymond Cotton is joining the Jaguars and is expected to practice with the team when they hit the practice field for the first time on Friday morning. Raymond, a redshirt Freshman received his official release from Ole Miss on Wednesday.
He joins a good stable of quarterback at South Alabama. Brennan Sim, Myles Gibbon, Gabe Graham who were all there last season. Including incoming Freshman C.J. Bennett from Tampa, Florida and Matt Saucier who took snaps at quarterback in the Spring of last year but moved to Safety before the season started. Nick Owens transferred after last season when it became obvious that he was not going to get as much playing time with the Jags.
Cotton was ranked among the top 30 quarterbacks nationally by both ESPN and Scout.com as well as being in the top 15 players in the Mid-Atlantic region. He also participated in the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp last summer after his one season with Fort Meade.
It was also announced on Wednesday that Jarred Williams is transferring from Florida-Atlantic to South Alabama. he will also be able to participate in the teams first practice on Friday morning.
Williams is a 6’3″ 245 pound defensive end originally from Fort Walton Beach, Florida and will have four years of eligibility for South Alabama after redshirting last season with FAU.
Williams marks the fifth student-athlete to join the Jaguars from a NCAA FBS (formerly Division I-A) program.
As stated above, the Jags will begin preparation for their second season of football on Friday. They will be facing a tougher schedule so the coach staff made spring drills more physical and challenging to fit the bill. They also recruited well to fill specific needs and to add depth at certain positions.
The schedule will expand from seven game to ten with all of their opponents being four-year institutions as well as the Jags first three road games. Coach Jones expects 129 Jaguar players to report on Wednesday and will take care of all of their academic preparation on Thursday and probably have meetings to prepare for practice on Friday.
One of the positions that was of major concern was the secondary. Saucier was among the players who were converted from offensive positions to help give the Jags depth in the secondary. Another was Ken Barefield who flourished in the secondary. They added Jonathan Cameron from Mississippi Gulf Coast CC and Darrow Fisher for experience as well as some freshmen who will add to the depth.
Coach Jones also wants more depth on the offensive line. He said only about six players got the majority of the playing time last season and he wants to get more involved. “We need to have at least 10 guys that we feel like we can count on. We’re recruiting to try and get to that point. Playing the schedule we’re playing this year, we’ve got to create some depth there, and competition. Last year, those guys knew it didn’t matter what they did, they were going to start. We didn’t have any depth. Now we’re going to have some guys breathing down their necks and pushing them and that’s always good.”
Another position of interest to Coach Jones is defensive end. “We need to find guys who can come off the edge and sack the quarterback. We feel like we’ve got some big guys on the defensive line, some very good players, but we’ve got to develop some pass rush,” Coach Jones said. “They’ve really gotten bigger, faster and stronger. But most of those guys we’re playing with on the defensive line, they’re freshmen. We don’t have a lot of veterans there to help them out.”
Friday’s practice will go from 7:10-9:45am to begin the first of nine straight days of practice. Friday and Saturday the team will be practicing in T-shirts and shorts. They will then add shells for practice on Sunday and Monday then will practice in full pads beginning on Tuesday.