Jags begin 2011 Spring Practice
South Alabama was among the first programs in the country to start their spring football practice on Monday. The players hit the field at 7am for the first of 15 practices that can be held over the span of 5 weeks. The fifteenth and final of those practices, the annual spring football game, which is scheduled for 2pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, March 26th and the only practice that will be held off campus.
Coach Jones has continued their short tradition of holding practice early in the morning. He says that the players concentration is much better at that time of day.
Coach Jones also commented about his decision to begin practice early in the spring. “From an academic standpoint, when we finish on March 26th our student-athletes will be getting into the meat of their schedule as the end of the semester nears. This gives them about six weeks where they can concentrate on academics, which I feel is a help to them. Secondly, if we were to have any significant injuries, it gives us a month or a month-and-a-half to help those individuals rehab so they can come back. I think those are the two main reasons why I like to practice this early in the spring.”
The Jags hit the practice field again on Tuesday then took Wednesday off. They will hit the field again on Thursday at 7:45am and will end the week with a 9am stretching session on Saturday.
Coach Jones commented on how the players have grown since last year. “When you walk in the weight room right now you see guys who are bigger and stronger,” he said. “Some of the guys have been here three years, and you can just see that the bench presses, squats and power cleans are going up. I want to see how that translates onto the field, that’s usually exciting.”
Coach Jones continued, “We want to be extremely physical. When people look at us and how we play, hopefully that is what they’ve seen. We want to continue that. I think we need to have physical teams to compete with these teams we will play next year like North Carolina State and Kent State, and on down the line. It’s also going to be interesting to watch the competition — there should be much more this spring because guys who have been in some slots the last couple of seasons are getting better, but we have some young players who are coming along as well as the transfers who will be on the field for the first time next week.”
The second week of practice will be similar to the first week of practice with a 7am practice on Monday and 7:45am practices on Tuesday and Thursday. Then they will have their first scrimmage on Saturday at 9am. Following three days off from Sunday March 6th through Wednesday March 8th, they will then hit the practice field for three consecutive days. Wednesday and Friday practices will be at 7am and Thursday’s practice will be at 7am. The Friday practice will be the second of the three scheduled scrimmages. Then the Jags will take off for spring break.
Once they return from spring break, they will practice at 7:45am on Tuesday March 22nd and Thursday March 24th before the final scrimmage on Saturday March 26th.