Jags Rubit And Conner Earn Preseason Honors From Yahoo! Sports
South Alabama’s Augustine Rubit and Dre Conner earned pre-season honors from Yahoo! Sports.
Rubit was named to the First Team All-Sun Belt team. He is a junior from Houston, Texas and coming off his sophomore season where he averaged 15.2 ppg and 9.2 rebounds per game. His rebounding average led the conference for the second consecutive year. Also his 12 double-doubles last season also led the conference.
Conner was named Newcomer of the Year. He is a junior college transfer from Labette community college in Lauderhill, Florida.
Additionally, Yahoo! Sports selected the Jaguars to finish second in the East Division behind defending conference champion Middle Tennessee State.
Monday Press Conference Previewing Arkansas State
The Jaguar cheerleaders leading the team onto the field while Coach Jones greets his team on the sidelines prior to the Jags game against Nicholls State.
The University of South Alabama and head coach Joey Jones held their weekly Monday press conference. This week coach Jones discusses Saturday’s road game at Arkansas State. Below are some highlights from the press conference.
Opening statement: “Arkansas State is a very good football team. I watched them play last Thursday at FIU. They went down there on the road and beat a very good FIU team. Their losses have come to the likes of Oregon and Nebraska, so they are a very good football team. They’re very good on offense, and have a lot of juniors and seniors starting in their offensive and defensive lineups. They are a veteran team, and we expect them to be a great football team when we walk into the stadium.”
Jones then spoke about the open week and how the team benefited from it. “It couldn’t have come at a better time. We were beat up. Being nine-and-a-half weeks into it, counting fall camp, it came at a great time for our players and coaches after an emotional three games of playing N.C. State, Mississippi State and Troy.”
He then spoke about how the practice will change for the offense since the Jags have named a starting quarterback and that they will no longer rotate quarterbacks. “When we play one quarterback, he’s going to get more reps in practice. Before, we were splitting the reps 50-50 because they were going to play in the game 50-50. We’re going to give our starter [Ross Metheny] probably 70 percent of the reps, and C.J. [Bennett] will get about 30. It should make him sharper in the games, so we’ll see. We just felt like it was a move we needed to make for the offense. We’re trying to find that identity in where we are, so I think that will help us with him getting more reps in practice. We think it’s going to help us. We tried to let it pan out over the last five games, but I think it will help us just from the standpoint that they [offense] know that he [Metheny] is going to be the guy right now.”
Jones then spoke about improvement needed from the offense. “We have not put a complete game together. We have to be balanced. We’ve had too many three-and-outs, and that’s not really any one person’s fault. We have a young offense. We started the season with two freshmen and five sophomores on the offensive unit. We have to get better, but it isn’t easy to get better when you’re playing the teams we are playing. We’re a better team than we were last year, but we’re playing much better competition right now and it just isn’t showing. We have to be able to stick the ball into the end zone. Defense and special teams are playing good enough to win, so if we can get that part going on offense then we’re going to get this thing rolling. But we have to get out there and get it done.”
Coach Jones then spoke about what ASU does well. “They are pretty good on both sides of the football. They’re averaging about 500 yards a game offensively, and are playing really good defense. They’re just playing with a lot of confidence. Any time you win a championship the year before, you can just tell they’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
He then spoke about how the off week helped the team to prepare for the Arkansas State offense. “I would hate to have known that we would have to have gotten ready in one week for what they’re doing. [Head coach] Gus [Malzahn] does a great job of changing things up and scouting himself. You can tell that he scouts himself well with their personnel groupings. They give you fits all over the field, both horizontally and vertically. They really make you play the whole field on defense. That’s probably the most difficult thing.”
Arkansas State head coach Gus Malzahn is well known in the Southeast. He spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Auburn University, most notably during the 2010 national championship season. Also during the 2010 season he tutored eventual Heisman winner Cam Newton.
Jags Rest Up For Eight Game Stretch To End Season
As the players took a couple days off to rest and recharge for the final eight games of the season the coaches hit the road to do some recruiting. After the first five games with a tough three game stretch, it was much needed.
They return to the practice field to prepare for their trip to Jonesboro, Arkansas, which will be the fourth in what many consider the toughest portion of the Jaguars schedule. Arkansas is coming off of a 34-20 win Thursday night over FIU to even their record at 3-3 (1-1 Sun Belt).
The Jags will be focusing on correcting things that have plagued them in the first five games of the season. They are trying to get the offense on track and moving the ball, ending big plays on defense, eliminating penalties and turnovers. If they can correct them, they will correct the most important item on their list: ending the losing streak.
The offense is near the bottom in most offensive categories. They rank last in rushing offense. They rank ninth in passing offense, total offense and scoring offense. They are last in passing efficiency and 3rd down conversions. They rank ninth in kickoff coverage, penalties and turnover margin. And they are eighth in time of possession and first downs.
The defense is doing much better though. They are second in total defense, fourth in rushing defense, fifth in scoring defense and passing defense. Senior linebacker Jake Johnson is ranked at the top of the league in tackles per game with fellow linebacker Enrique Williams ranks 11th in the same category.
During the off week, head coach Joey Jones announced they were shelving the two-quarterback system but will evaluate the position, like all positions, on a week-to-week basis. He named Ross Metheny as the starting quarterback for Arkansas State. The coaches hope that this will bring more consistency to the offense.
The Jags do have a tough schedule left to go. After Arkansas State and FAU at home they will travel to Louisiana-Monroe who defeated Arkansas in overtime and narrowly lost to Auburn in Overtime. They then return home to face FIU before hitting the road for North Texas. They then return home for the last time this season for Middle Tennessee State, who defeated Georgia Tech by three touchdowns recently. They close out the season with road trips to Louisiana-Lafayette and Hawaii.
Hopefully they are well rested. The next eight games will continue to test them week-in and week-out.
Sun Belt Conference Scores From The Weekend
Western Kentucky, Troy, FAU and the Jags were all off this weekend.
Arkansas State 34 – FIU 20
FIU, who was picked to win the SBC title this pre-season, fell to 1-5 (1-1 SBC). While Arkansas State improved to 3-3 (1-1 SBC) on the season. ASU’s Ryan Aplin became the SBC’s all-time leader in career offense with 10,365 yards as he went 15-of-23 for 223 yards. Running back David Oku rushed for three touchdowns while freshman receiver J.D. McKissic caught five passes for 124 yards, his first 100-yard receiving game, and a touchdown.
The Jags will travel to Jonesboro, Arkansas to face ASU this weekend.
UL-Monroe 31 – MTSU 17
ULM improved to 3-2 (1-0 SBC) on the season with their win while MTSU fell to 3-2 (1-1 SBC).
ULM quarterback Kolton Browning went 26-of-38 for 285 yards and a touchdown in the win. ULM receiver Brent Leonard caught eight passes for 73 yards and Je’Ron Hamm added three catches for 62 yards and a touchdown. Running back Jyruss Edwards added 87 yards rushing on 17 attempts with two touchdowns.
UL-Lafayette 41 – Tulane 13
The Ragin’ Cajuns (4-1, 2-0 SBC) rushed for 294 yards as they defeated the Tulane Green Wave for homecoming. ULL rushed for 164 of those yards in the first half en route to a 24-10 halftime lead. Alonzo Harris rushed 23 times for 123 yards and a touchdown. Terrance Broadway got his first start at quarterback for ULL and went 9-of-22 for 150 yards and two touchdowns while also adding a rushing touchdown as well.
North Texas 21 – Houston 44
UNT (2-4 overall, 1-1 SBC) fell behind a mere 1:15 into the game as Houston scored on five of its first six possessions. They turned the ball over on downs deep in UNT territory on the only possession of the first half without a score. Each scoring drive averaged over 77 yards and only took just over two minutes to score.
UNT’s Derek Thompson went 20-of-38 for 252 yards with two interceptions. Running back Brandin Byrd rushed 19 times for 96 yards while Jeremy Brown added 80 yards on 7 carries. Ivan Delgado caught four passes for 85 yards in the loss.
USA Ending QB Rotation Is The Right Decision
Quarterbacks Trey Fetner and transfer Ross Metheny participating in position drills.
Press-Register and AL.com writer Tommy Hicks wrote an an article yesterday evening concerning South Alabama’s quarterback situation.
He was spot on.
He said that the coaching staff made the right decision to side-line the two-quarterback system and name a single quarterback as the starter for the Jags in Arkansas State. Each quarterback is comfortable with their own style and pace for things, but rotating those styles every three possessions has to cause some problems in the offense as a whole. Not to mention the difficulty that other players on offense have in trying to play consistently when quarterbacks are continually rotated.
As for if the right quarterback has been selected to be the starter, that will have to proven on the field. Right now, Ross Metheny knows he is the starter and will be getting the majority of the snaps in practice. It’s his job to keep. While C.J. Bennett will have to go above and beyond what he has done to earn his starting spot back while taking a reduced number of snaps in practice.
Bennett has shown flashes of brilliant play during his career at South Alabama, but he has also had quite a bit of criticism over decision making. Particularly last season when he threw 17 interceptions to only 7 touchdowns.
Sometimes it takes some adversity to make you rise to the occasion. Sometimes it takes some faith in a new face. Either way, the Jags want to win and they are trying to find that formula.
You can read the article here.
Men’s BBall To Play In Coaches Vs Cancer; Coach Pietri Pleased With Beginning Of Women’s Practices
Some dates have been set for the South Alabama men’s basketball team. The Jags will be participating in the 2012 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and American Cancer Society announced this week.
The four regional hosts will be BYU, Florida State, Notre Dame and Saint Joesph’s beginning on November 9. The championship rounds will be held on November 16-17 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Jags will open the season at regional host Florida State on November 9. They will then host William Carey before traveling to Atlanta for three sub-regional games where they will face Tennessee State on November 19th at 3pm CST. They will then face Monmouth on November 20th at 3pm CST and finally the Jags will take on Georgia State to close out the three-day tournament on November 21st at 2pm CST.
Tennessee State returns four starters from last season where they won 20 games and finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference. Monmouth had a 12-20 record last season but went 10-8 in the Northeast Conference. Georgia State went 22-12 last season but lost four starters and seven letterwinners.
Lady Jaguars
Coach Rick Pietri is pleased with the progress the Lady Jaguar basketball team has done so far as they have begun practices for the 2012-2013 season.
“I think our first two practices have been good,” Pietri said. “It appears that from top to bottom this group is in good shape from a conditioning standpoint. I believe for the first time since I have been here, we were able to go five-on-five in our closing segments the other day. We’ve shown some promise in terms of things that we could be capable of doing on the offensive end of the floor. We haven’t even talked about defense yet as a team, but we’ll do that towards the end of the week. I do like what I’ve seen from both the veterans and newcomers and after two days of practice, I’m encouraged, but of course there’s a long way to go.”
Jags Finish Final Practice Of The Week On Wednesday
Offensive lineman running position drills in preseason camp.
The Jaguars practiced again on Wednesday, their last practice of the week before returning for regular game-week preparation.
The two hour practice was very similar to day before with work on fundamentals, game-planning for Arkansas State and getting younger players in for some reps. An off-week is a great time to get younger players reps on the practice field, especially when the team is as banged up as they are right now.
Four defensive linemen are out after the game against Troy. Romelle Jones is healing from an injury suffered early against NC State. Montavious Williams suffered an ankle injury against Troy. Anthony Taylor suffered a season ending broken leg against Mississippi State.
“We just tried to install parts of the gameplan and had some good fundamental work today,” head coach Joey Jones told the Press-Register. “We had a little scrimmage with the young guys again today so I think that this break is coming at a real good time. I think if we had to play this weekend we’d be in bad shape. We’ve got about four defensive linemen out. They’ll be back, but they would be in some pretty significant pain if they had to play this weekend so it came at a pretty good time.”
The Jags will have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off before returning for meetings and gameplan study. Then they will return to the practice fields on Monday afternoon to continue implementing their game plan for their trip to Jonesboro, Arkansas to face Arkansas State.
Nick Saban Isn’t A Fan Of The No-Huddle
The Jaguar offense looks to the sideline for play adjustments against UTSA.
Press-Register beat writer covering the University of Alabama posted an article on Wednesday about Nick Saban’s thoughts on the no-huddle offense.
Alabama defeated Ole Miss 33-14 on Saturday. Ole Miss has a new coach this season in Hugh Freeze who brought the no-huddle spread offense from Arkansas State for the Rebels. Ole Nick Saban isn’t too fond of this style of offense that is spreading around the nation.
“I think that the way people are going no-huddle right now, that at some point in time, we should look at how fast we allow the game to go in terms of player safety. The team gets in the same formation group, you can’t substitute defensive players, you go on a 14-, 16-, 18-play drive and they’re snapping the ball as fast as you can go and you look out there and all your players are walking around and can’t even get lined up. That’s when guys have a much greater chance of getting hurt when they’re not ready to play.
I think that’s something that can be looked at. It’s obviously created a tremendous advantage for the offense when teams are scoring 70 points and we’re averaging 49.5 points a game. With people that do those kinds of things. More and more people are going to do it.
I just think there’s got to be some sense of fairness in terms of asking is this what we want football to be?”
You just try to get your players ready to do it the best way that you can,” Saban said. “I don’t think anybody really ever thought we’d go no-huddle and the coach could control the game from the sidelines and call the plays based on how the defense was lined up. That’s a real advantage for the offense.
You have to adapt on defense, your players have to adapt and it can be stressful in terms of communication and keeping their focus and energy level where it needs to be to play at that pace. It is what it is, so we try to get our players ready to do that.
I think there’s always been good offensive teams in our league. I think people that have really good quarterbacks and skill players and can make plays in the passing game. When they get hot, they certainly can score quickly and make a lot of big plays.
There’s always been teams in our league that can play very well on defense, but some days even good defenses get exposed a little bit, especially when they play a really good offensive team. I’m not surprised by it.
Granted, some people may not like the no-huddle spread offense but it’s an equalizer of sorts for the smaller teams over the bigger teams. Either way, teams get film and have a chance to formulate a game plan to prepare for such teams.
I dislike using the terms upper-level and lower-level teams. But if you look at it, teams like Alabama and others in the “big six” conferences are typically considered upper-level schools. They tend to be able to recruit big linemen and, as coach Jones has pointed out many times, there’s only so many of those big linemen to go around.
I believe one of the reasons that Coach Jones made the move to a no-huddle spread offense was partly because of that. It’s the offense’s potential to run plays back-to-back-to-back that allows the “lower-level” team a way to equalize the playing field somewhat.
Does Nick Saban want to push the Senior Bowl rules into College Football as a whole? Where there’s no blitzing? I think the defense has to cover 2 even.
I don’t see anything wrong with it. Do you?
UPDATE: Andrew Gribble posted a follow-up article this morning that had reactions from all over including Hugh Freeze and Urban Meyer. You can read it here.
Troy Receiver Added To Biletnikoff Award Watch List
Fresh off Troy’s win over the Jaguars, Troy wide receiver Chip Reeves has been added to the Biletnikoff Award watch list by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation. Reeves was one of 11 players to be added to the award watch list, which is awarded to the nation’s top wide receiver.
Reeves leads the Sun Belt and ranks 35th nationally with an average of 85.6 receiving yards per game. Reeves has 29 catches for 428 yards through five games this season and averages 14.8 yards per reception.
Reeves is a fifth-year senior for the Trojans.
Ross Metheny Named Starter At Quarterback
Quarterback Ross Metheny reads the NC State defense pre-snap in Raleigh, NC.
Head coach Joey Jones announced today that Ross Metheny will be the starting quarterback for the Jaguars. This was first reported on AL.com and reiterated while filming the Joey Jones Show that airs each Saturday on UTV44 in Mobile, Alabama.
In an interview with the Press-Register, Coach Jones said that Metheny would be the starter for the Jaguars “right now.” Jones indicated that the position would be evaluated on a week-to-week basis, which leaves the door open in the future for C.J. Bennett to work his way back into the spot. However doing so will take much more effort and focus since Metheny will begin getting most of the first-team snaps when the Jaguars resume practice next week.
Bennett started 16 consecutive games for the Jags. The first two of 2012, all 10 games in 2011 and the last four of the 2010 season.
Coach Jones has reiterated a number of times that Metheny and Bennett were very close to each other. Both could stand to improve but they both also played well. Jones decided to go with one quarterback so they would get a majority of the reps in practice and see if that helps the offense to improve over their performance so far this season.
Hopefully this will take the pressure off of the quarterbacks and they are able to play to their best potential. But most of all, that it will give the Jags opportunities to win.
Metheny has gone 34-of-59 for 354 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions so far this season completing 57.6 percent of his passes. He has also ran 25 times for 7 yards. Bennett has gone 52-of-95 for 543 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions on the season. Which comes out to a 54.7 percent completion average. Bennett has also rushed 28 times for 134 yards, one of those rushes went for 50 yards last Saturday against Troy to set up the Jags only touchdown of the game.
Coach Jones hopes this gives the offense the spark they need to improve as a team on offense.