South Alabama’s Plan For Their Receivers
The Jaguars have been doing a great job this season getting lots of receivers playing time. Why are they getting so many players into the game? It’s not because they are playing lowly teams. Nicholls State was a huge test for the Jags and they still had nine receivers catching passes and only one catching more than one pass. The Jags are building depth.
Wide receivers coach Ron Antoine, offensive coordinator Greg Gregory and Coach Jones have a plan. They want to play several receivers to build depth but more importantly they want to pressure the defensive secondary. Defenses rarely substitute secondary players. Yes they will bring in different package like a nickel or dime package if necessary. But from play to play, defenses rarely sub cornerbacks.
This is what the Jaguars, or any other team for that matter, wants to exploit. If you can plug in any receiver at any time, the pressure is on the secondary every single play to cover those players. The pressure is not only on the secondary to cover, but also to fight off blocks as well.
The Jaguar receivers have done an excellent job this season of bringing it every single play. They block their assignments every play all the way down the field. As you can see, this is some serious pressure on the defensive secondary.
This also serves another purpose. Courtney Smith is a senior this season for the Jaguars. This is a way to build depth. So, when your team has seniors graduate you don’t have a vacuum of talent when they leave. This will be very important as South Alabama progresses from being unclassified to a full FBS member school.
One one defensive coordinator in recent memory would actually substitute secondary players. That coach was Mickey Andrews at Florida State. His secondary was very good in the 90’s because of this.
Combine South Alabama’s receiving corps with running backs like Brandon Ross, Kendall Houston, Santuan McGee and T.J. Glover the offense is building depth to attack defenses.
This missing key right now is depth in the secondary. The linebacking corps had good depth and talent. The defensive line has become deeper but could still use more depth. The secondary has come up with big plays, yes. But they also have given up several big plays.
This is yet another example of how South Alabama and it’s coaching staff have taken the right approach in bringing football to the school.