Jags Enter Much Needed Off Week
The Jaguar offense looks to the sideline for play adjustments against UTSA.
The South Alabama Jaguars has an off week at just the right time. After starting the season 1-4, dropping their last three decisions in a row, they Jags know what they need to improve. Plus it gives the players a chance to rest and heal those bumps and bruises they have accumulated over the first five games.
They are expected to practice through Wednesday before taking a few days off before returning to the normal game-week practice routine to prepare for their trip to Arkansas State on October 13. Arkansas State, last seasons Sun Belt champion, is 2-3 on the season and 0-1 in the conference. Their head coach was hired to fill the same position at Ole Miss and was replaced by former Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.
Arkansas State is the second game of an eight game stretch of Sun Belt opponents they will face this season. It is also the last game of a four game stretch that, coming into this season, was considered the roughest four-game stretch for the Jags.
South Alabama had problems moving the ball through the air against Troy, only throwing for 59 yards in the whole game. Overall, the offense has had problems sustaining drives. The Jags were 0-for-11 in third down conversions against NC State and 20-for-72 for the season, which is a dismal 28 percent.
However the defense has been quite formidable. Opponents have been held to 23-of-69 or 33 percent in third down conversions. But the defense’s most glaring problem is allowing big plays, especially in the passing game.
But what was exposed in the Troy game was an uncharacteristic flurry of penalties. The Jags were flagged 11 times in the first half for 102 yards and they would end the game with 15 for 142 yards. Was it frustration or was it hype by the media during the week leading up to the game? Maybe it was a bit of both.
“We’ve got to evaluate where we are and be true about what we’re doing wrong and what we’re doing right,” Head coach Joey Jones told the Press-Register. “We’ve got to just give ourselves the best chance to win that we can. Right now we’re cutting a fine line. We kind of have to do everything perfect to win. (Opposing) teams have more players than us right now, more depth. We’ve got some good players, they’ve just got more of them. They’ve been recruiting a lot longer. We’ve got to be razor sharp to be able to play with these teams and how we do that is something that we’ve got decide in the next week or two.”
Do the Jaguars continue rotating quarterbacks or do they decide on one quarterback and stick with him for an entire game? C.J. Bennett started the first three games, but Ross Metheny has started the last two games. Both have played in all five games, but only Bennett seemed to have sparked the offense against the second-team defense in Starkville. But will that, combined with his efforts in the previous games this season, be enought to seperate himself from Metheny?
When asked on Saturday if the Jags would continue to stick with the two-quarterback system, coach Jones answered “That’s a good question. I don’t know if we’re hurting ourselves by doing it. The bottom line is I haven’t thought at this time that anybody had really separated himself, that’s why we kept doing it. It’s something we’ve really got to look at the next two weeks. We have an off week next week and we’ve just got to make some decisions. We’ll do that here in the next few days.”
The Jags are a good team, but depth and consistency have been their achilles heel.
But this team has something most teams do not. They have a fight that may be unmatched by many. But that fight needs to find a way to put points on the board in order to give them a better chance at coming out on top.