Jaguars return to practice for game prep
J.J. Keels takes a breather on his knee while the kickoff team resets.
The University of South Alabama Jaguars returned to practice on Monday after having the weekend off. Additionally, the players returned to class on Monday as well.
Monday’s practice was structured similarly to practices during camp. They began with special teams, concentrating on kickoff returns. They then moved to working on screens and double-team individual player drills.
The offense also ran skeleton passing drills before 11-on-11 work. The offense and defense worked against scout teams as they continued installing plays for the season opener against West Alabama on September 1.
More 11-on-11 work had the offense picking up blitz packages with the first and second team units running about five plays each. C.J. Bennett was able to connect with Corey Waldon running a crossing route, but the offense would only manage one other completion which was an out route consisting of the Bennett’s, C.J. to Paul.
The defense recorded sacks by Cori Barnett and Romelle Jones against the first team, then Desmond Jones against the second team. Damond Smith and Alex Page both recorded pass breakups on attempts by the second-team quarterbacks.
The practice ended with more special teams work on kickoff coverage.
Coach Jones was pleased with the practice in his post-practice talk. “I thought it was a great practice, especially for the first day of classes. Usually that’s a bad one because they have their minds on school, pretty girls coming to class and those kinds of things. They were focused this morning, it was a really good sign. I think giving them Saturday and Sunday off really helped.”
“We had some good situational stuff done today with the third-down blitz, the defense did a good job of getting to the quarterback today,” continued Coach Jones. “They looked a little fresher on defense, which I thought was good. We’re starting to game plan now, the kids have been watching film on West Alabama.”
The Jags will continue game preparation at 6:45am on Tuesday morning at the Jaguar Practice Facility with a mere 9 days until kickoff of the 2011 season.