South Alabama Completes First Day Of Spring Practice
If the early bird indeed gets the worm, then South Alabama should be in a good position this spring. The Jags kicked off spring practice with an early morning practice on Wednesday by hitting the practice field before the sun had a chance to come into view.
Getting started early, the offense used the first 15-minute session to work on formations as they began learning the spread offense being installed by Coach Matthews. They then worked in groups based on position for about 40 minutes. Then they came together again to work against the scout team for about 25 minutes focusing on running basic plays.
On defense, they began with pursuit drills before working in position groups with their position coaches focusing on individual skills for about 35 minutes. Then there was a 10 minute session of formations. They also worked on different fronts, stunts and coverages. Then they ended the session with 15-minutes working on blitzes.
On both sides of the ball, the first, second and third-team units all had time during workouts.
There were a handful of new players and coaches that have joined the team for the first time. So Coach Jones treated this first practice as a bit of an introductory session. “That’s really what it was,” he said. “The defense needed it, but since they pretty much understand what they’re doing, it was the offense that really needed it.”
“I thought the effort and attitude was extremely good,” Coach Jones continued. “Now, offensively we probably made 400 mistakes, but that was to be expected. The deal from here is to keep chipping away at those. Their heads were swimming. We were calling formations and plays, and they were looking around trying to find out what they were supposed to do. We expected that. I’m really pleased with the effort and attitude they came out with today.”
The team will not waste time. They return to the practice field tomorrow morning for another 6:30 AM practice on Thursday. While the players will be in shorts again, the schedule will be altered a bit by Coach Jones and the rest of his staff. “It will be a little longer practice, probably over two hours tomorrow, and we’ll get into more team situations, more 7-on-7 drills, more inside drills,” Jones explained. “Today we were just completely split, offense and defense. Tomorrow, we’ll have some offense against the defense.”
When you have a lot to learn, you better hit the books early. That’s exactly what the Jags are doing.