No Sun Belt Expansion Just Yet
Last week during the Sun Belt Conference tournament, conference commissioner Karl Benson and the SBC schools met while they were all in New Orleans and the conversation of expansion was not something they voted on in their meetings.
With Western Kentucky leaving for Conference USA, they have been discussing the possibility of adding a 12th school to the conference. Early last year they opted against immediately adding a 12th football playing school and if they intend to add a FCS school for the 2015 season, they would need to do so by June 1.
Benson is not sure when or if a vote will take place when the same administrators from the represtative schools gather together again in mid-May for the annual spring meetings.
WKU leaves the Sun Belt to join other former members Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Florida International and Florida Atlantic in Conference USA.
The reason for a 12th football team would be to achieve geographic balance with the creation of two divisions would give the conference the opportunity for a conference football championship game which would give the league more visibility and more revenue.
At least four current FCS programs are interested and one that continues to be mentioned each time the conversation starts is Liberty University in Virginia. They have either won outright or shared the Big South Conference championship from 2007 through 2013.
Benson said that, “We’re going through the process of evaluating and doing our due diligence,” when he spoke about adding a 12th school. But he did not indicate if that due diligence included Liberty or any school in particular.
If one is to get an invite they would need to get 75% of the Sun Belt member schools to vote for their admission.
Defensive Players Look Good In Second Week Of Practice
Quarterbacks Trey Fetner and Ross Metheny participating in position drills in a previous seasons practice session.
Monday’s practice wasn’t the best day day for the Jags, especially for the quarterbacks who didn’t have a good day throwing the ball.
But everything has a silver lining sometimes as the defense showed alot of passion on the defensive line and linebacker. Theo Rich knocked down a number of passes. While Jesse Kelley has started to be a leader both on and off the field for the defensive line. He and Jerome McClain have been working to teach the younger guys the system and pushing them to continue to get better each practice and each play.
Kelley finished the 2013 season tied for 11th place of the Jaguar tackler’s last season with 34 stops and 6.5 of them for loss including two sacks.
On Wednesday, the quarterbacks looked better throwing the ball with more accuracy. Also Brandon Bridge, who came into spring practices as the top quarterback, has started to take on more of a leadership role.
Coach Jones was impressed with the defense again as the secondary and linebackers did a good job. They did a good job in coverage with Montell Garner picking off a pass during the practice session.
A bit of a surprise was sprung on the players and kickers at the end of practice. Jones told the players in his post-practice talk with the team, that the kickers, Aleem Sunanon representing the defense and Zac Henry representing the offense, were going to attempt 45-yard field goals. If one made it and the other didn’t, then that squad would have to do pushups. If both make their kicks, the coaches would do pushups.
Both kickers missed their kicks on the first attempt, but both made them on their second attempt and the coaching staff did their push-ups.
USA will return to the practice field on Saturday with a two-hour-plus scrimmage scheduled at 3pm. “We’ll have a long scrimmage,” Jones told AL.com after practice. “It will be every bit of two hours because we want to get as many people on the field as we can and get them some reps. One of the things we talked about in the staff meeting is just getting better fundamentally. For instance, the only way the offensive line can get better is by going with the speed of the game and blocking guys at a full-speed rate. Walking though and all those things – talking about it and watching film – ain’t going to get it. So we get our offensive line better and our defensive line better playing fast out here at practice and they’re doing a good job with the practice tempo.”
The first part of the day on Saturday will be Junior Day where somewhere between 200 and 300 prospective student-athletes will visit allowing the school to showcase what they have to offer. They will have an opportunity to see the campus as well as watching the scrimmage. Coach Jones says that if they can get a kid on campus, then they stand a good chance at getting them to eventually sign with the program.
USA Men’s Basketball Announce Two Transfers Leaving The Team
Viktor Juricek as a freshman in December 2012 | USAJaguars.com
The University of South Alabama announced that sophomore Viktor Juricek and freshman T.J. Johnson intend to transfer to other programs from the men’s basketball program.
Juricek, 6’11” 210-pound native of Prievidza, Slovakia, played in 26 games over his two seasons at USA and averaged one point per game.
Johnson, a 6’2″ 175-pound guard from Tamarac, Florida and Deerfield Beach High School played in 20 games this past season and averaged 2.6 points per game for the Jaguars.
This will free up two more scholarships for head coach Matthew Graves who has already signed 6’8″ forwards Tafari Whittingham and Abdul Lewis in the early signing period. Whittingham will come from Hutchinson KA Community College and Lewis from Newark, New Jersey’s East Side High.
They also signed 6’5″ Luka Andjusic who enrolled in December and practiced with the team using his redshirt.
Coach Graves has mentioned that they want to sign a post player and a wing player with some size and quickness.
The Jags played with six freshmen this season, Andjusic made seven, out of a 14 man roster and graduated two seniors in Antoine Allen and preseason Player of the Year and multi-record holder Augustine Rubit.
Back in December of 2012 Matt Weaver wrote a piece on Viktor for Thunderjags. You can read it by clicking here.
Viktor Juricek has breakout performance in South Alabama’s victory over Corpus Christi
USA Softball Continues To Rise In Polls Ahead Of SBC Play
The Jaguars continue to inch their way up the polls. This week they move up one spot in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll to #13 and they moved up three spots in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll also to the #13 spot.
USA went 2-0 over this past weekend winning by a combined score of 14-1, including a 5-1 win over host Oklahoma State. But their Sunday rematch against the Cowgirls was cancelled due to weather.
The Jaguars have been led by the powerful duo in the pitchers circle, senior Hannah Campbell and junior Farish Beard.
Beard, a Fairhope native, ranks first in the country in NCAA stats with a miniscule ERA of only 0.38. Her hits per game (7 innings) is the lowest in the country at 1.98. She is third in the county in strikeouts per seven innings at 11.5 and 17th in total strikeouts with 122 this season.
Hannah Campbell, a Satsuma native, is seventh in the country in ERA with a similarly small 0.76 ERA and is sixth in the nation in walks allowed per seven innings at 0.67. She is tied for 34th in total strikeouts with 102.
Farish is 13-1 on the season with nine complete games under her belt and has pitched 74.1 innings. Campbell is 7-2 on the season with nine complete games while pitching 83 innings. Campbell also recently pitched her second career perfect game when they defeated Nicholls State.
They have also gotten help from the plate with Pilkington batting .329 with 12 RBI, Kaitlyn Griffith batting .318 with two home runs and 11 RBI. Amanda Minahan batting .297 with two home runs and 10 RBI, Chloe Rathburn batting .288 with 5 home runs and 16 RBI, Blair Johnson batting .250 with two home runs and 14 RBI and Alex Breeden who has five home runs and 15 RBI. But they also do well with defense as a host of players have a perfect fielding percentage and a number more with over a .900 fielding percentage.
Now with their tournament portion of their schedule over with, the 22-3 Jaguars have turned their focus on their conference schedule which begins on Saturday at Jaguar Field. They will host Texas-Arlington for a double-header on Saturday beginning at 1pm and game two scheduled for 3pm. Then their Sunday game is scheduled to get started at noon.
The only other Sun Belt team in the top 25 is Louisiana-Lafayette who are #20 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll and #22 in the ESPN.com/USA SOftball Top 25 poll. The University of Alabama sits and #9, four spots ahead of the Jaguars.
USA Baseball Faces #6 Ranked LSU Tigers This Evening
Tonight the Jaguar baseball team will take on the #6 ranked LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Jags leads the all-time series against the Tigers with a 24-14 record. They first met in 1971 and have not met again since 1997 NCAA South Regional in Baton Rouge where the Tigers defeated the Jags twice in regional play and advanced to the College World Series.
USA’s Matt Bell is scheduled to make the start for USA. He is 2-2 on the season with a 5.13 ERA in 26.1 innings pitched with eight walks and 18 strikeouts. LSU lefty Cody Glenn (1-1) will start for the Tigers. He has a 4.79 ERA in 20.2 innings pitched with three walks and 11 strikeouts.
LSU comes into the game after dropping two of their last three games against #3 Vanderbilt.
South Alabama is batting .239 as team with one home run and three steals in 13 attempts. USA is led at the plate by sophomore infielder Hayden Jones, who is hitting .296 with four doubles and seven RBI. Junior infielder Bud Collura is batting .277 with one double and six RBI.
The game can be heard on 105.5 FM WNSP.
Rubit Named To All-District Team For Fourth Time
Rubit sets yet another Jaguar record with his fourth consecutive All-Sun Belt Conference Team honor. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
Augustine Rubit was named to the 2014 All-District team for District 24 on Tuesday by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. This is his fourth consecutive NABC All-District honor for Rubit.
He became the first Jag since 1988, and only the second in the programs history, to lead the team in scoring average three consecutive years. He averaged 17 points per game, which was sixth highest in the Sun Belt. He also became the first player in school history to lead the team in rebounding average for four consecutive years with an average of 9.4 rebounds per game, third best in the conference.
He earned 12 double-doubles, third most in the conference, this season to break the previous school record. He scored a career-high 35 points against then #16 ranked Gonzaga back on December 14. He scored 20 or more points in 10 games this season.
His career school records include rebounds (also a conference record) 1,183, 550 free throws made, 763 free throws attempted.
Head coach Matthew Graves has some big shoes to fill on the recruiting trail.
USA’s Track and Field Both Earn Wins In Battle Of I-65
The South Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams both won the Battle of I-65 held at Jaguar Track on campus over the weekend.
The men earned wins in all four throwing events. Adam Peterson took the top spot with a 16.23m shot put. Also in the top five were Jarrod Kedzior who finished second with a throw of 15.61m and Jeff Long who finished fourth with a throw of 15.16m.
Jan-Louw Kotze came out on top of the discus throw with a 53.17m mark with Long finished fourth with a toss of 44.93m. Renaldo Frechou took the top spot in the hammer throw with a toss of 60.71m. The Jags claimed all of the top five spots actually with Long was second with a throw of 57.96m, Patterson finishing third with a throw of 56.93m, Kedzior fourth with a toss of 55.53m and Zach Blahnik finishing fifth with a personal record toss of 55.39m competing as an unattached individual.
Robert King won the javelin throw with a personal record of 53.31m.
But it didn’t stop there for the men. They took home the top three spots in the 110-meter hurdles with Ravaughn Pope’s time of 14.88 seconds. Tyler Agee was second with 14.89s, Spencer Anderson third with 15.50s. Anderson also took home the top spot in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.45 seconds.
Mark Watts came in first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.87s as teammate Michael Smith finishing second with a time of 49.04s. Michael Pienaar took the top spot in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.05 with Justin Housley finishing second with a time of 1:57.22.
Jaylon Holt’s 14.55m triple jump was good for first place with Tyson Berron taking second with a 13.77m jump and Lezyon Legarde took third with a 13.58m leap. Legarde took the top spot in the long jump with a 6.74m mark. Holt also finished second in the long jump with a 6.71m jump.
Holt finished second in the high jump with a 2.04m jump that was just shy of equally his personal record.
Cameron Ellis set a new personal record in the mile run to take first place with a time of 4:19.68.
The men won each of the relay races. The 4×100-meter relay saw Tevin Barnett, Holt, Legarde and Smith teaming up for a 42.27s time. The 400-meter relay saw Watts, Barnett, Agee and Smith clock in at 3:22.88.
In all the men won 13 events and gathered 107 total points to crush second place Samford (40pts) and Alabama State (16pts).
For the Women, Leah Hixon set a new personal record in Javelin with a 48.42m throw to take first place. Noelle JOnes also recorded a personal record of 46.42m for second place and Ashton Pennington took fourth with a 40.24m mark.
Tasha Russell took the 100-meter dash with a 14.28s run with Jones coming in second with a 14.35s run.
Phoebe Dowson took first place in the discus throw with a 44.88m toss. Bobbie Williamson finished third with a 39.85m mark and Morgan Jones finished fourth with a 39.83m mark. Williamson finished second in the hammer throw as well with a 56.04 toss.
Tori Lawson won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:17.37 with Shannen Weyer finishing third with a time of 10:39.23. Joanna McCoy finished third in the women’s mile run with a time of 5:09.39 to lead the team.
In all the women won five events and finished with 74 points as Samford came in second with 68 points and Alabama State in third with 34 points.
The team travels to Tuscaloosa on Friday and Saturday for the Alabama Relays.
Go Jags!
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Roundup
Baseball
Troy righty Tanner Hicks pitched a complete game shutout on Friday night to lead the Trojans over South Alabama 5-0 in the opening game of the series.
Hicks allowed only six hits while striking out five and walking one to even his record for the season at 2-2.
USA righty Kevin Hill tossed 6 1/3 innings allowing three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts and four walks. Cameron Carleton and Dillon Buhrkuhl combined to pitch 2 2/3rds scoreless innings in relief.
In game two the Jags evened the series but needed an extra inning to do so. Cole Gleason hit a walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning to give USA the 2-1 win to even the series.
In the bottom of the 10th, Bud Collura singled up the middle and then advanced to second on a wild pitch to set up Gleason for the game-winner.
Brandon Hallford earned the win with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. He did not allow a hit while striking out one. Locke St. John threw 7 2/3 innings and allowed only one run on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks but got the no decision.
The third game, which was scheduled as a double-header on Saturday due to weather concerns, was suspended in the bottom of the fourth inning on Saturday due to heavy rains. It was scheduled to resume at 1pm on Sunday, but was cancelled due to inclement weather. There is no word about a possible makeup date.
South Alabama will travel to Baton Rouge on Wednesday for a 6:30pm game agaisnt LSU.
Softball
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Jones New Deal And More Spring Practice
South Alabama and head coach Joey Jones announced and addendum to his contract that will increase his salary to $435,000 a year and will add a year to the deal, making it run through 2017.
Many of the Jaguar fans remember some of the rumors swirling after the season was over concerning Jones and UAB. However, the talks were underway between USA and Jones concerning this new deal.
Jones’ contract puts him “at the middle of the pack” for the Sun Belt according to South Alabama’s Athletic Director. This is based on the conference lineup for next season which includes the addition of Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Idaho and New Mexico State. It also reflects the departure of Western Kentucky.
Through his five seasons at the helm at USA, Jones has a 31-21 record including a 6-6 record last season where they won their final three games of the season, including a win over Sun Belt Conference Co-Champion Louisiana-Lafayette, to earn bowl eligibility if their first year eligible. Though they were not invited to a bowl game, it was still an impressive feat for a program as young as the Jaguars.
They finished the season with a 4-3 record in conference play, which put them in a tie for third place in the conference.
On Wednesday the Jags hit the practice field for their second practice of their spring schedule. It went for over two hours and the coaches were focused on getting as many reps as possible.
Wednesday saw lots of 7-on-7 drills with Brandon Bridge has entered the spring drills as the top quarterback but Trey Fetner has been impressive through the first practices. Fetner has thrown some deep passes that were right on the mark. But so has Bridge, however Bridge has had problems with his deep out passes in these two early practices.
The Jaguar offense is expected to be a stregth for the 2014 season after returning most of their starters from last season. The defensive side of the ball is where the concern lies early in spring practice. A large group of core contributors graduated, primarly on the defensive line. Players like Romelle Jones and Pat Moore. But also linebackers Clifton Crews, Bryson James and Enrique Williams.
Also the defense also lost their defensive coordinator from last season, Kevin Sherrer. However there will be continuity with Travis Pearson being promoted to defensive coordinator. The inside linebackers were a big strength for the Jags last season under his direction. His priority this spring is to build depth as they get ready for fall practice in a few months.
In the fall they will receive reinforcements. More players competing for playing time will hopefully elevate everyones game and make the team better.
So far Pearson likes the energy he sees from his unit. He has a good core of players to help guide the new incoming players. Jesse Kelley, Jerome McClain, Terrell Brigham, Qudarius Ford, Montell Garner, Roman Buchanan among others will be just as influential as the coaches when the new players arrive. But until then, they will continue to work on fundamentals and to prepare them for the upcoming season. What looks to be the most demanding and challenging schedule yet for the Jaguars.
But this is what they have been working and building towards for the previous several years. And if the final three games of last season is any indication of what the Jaguars are capable of this upcoming season, then this season could be a very bright one for the Jaguars.
USA Baseball Wins Fourth Consecutive Game With 5-1 Win Over USM
Matt Bell tossed 6 1/3 innings while allowing one run on two hits as he led the Jaguars over Southern Miss 5-1 in Hattiesburg Wednesday night.
Bell picked up his second win of the season as he struck out four and walked two to help the Jaguars extend their winning streak to four games. Brandon Hallford threw 1 2/3 perfect innings of relief with three strikeouts to earn his fourth save of the season.
Bell retired the first six batters before walking the leadoff batter in the third inning. A couple batters later Nick Dawson hit a two-out single to give USM a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning Drew LaBounty led off with a single to center field then advanced to second when Davis Knapp got on base on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Bud Collura moved both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt towards third base. Hayden Jones then hit a single to right field to bring both runners home to take a 2-1 lead.
In the top of the ninth, leading 3-1, the Jags added two more insurance runs.
The 9-7 Jaguars will begin Sun Belt play this weekend when they host Troy in a three game series at Eddie Stanky Field. Game one’s first pitch is scheduled for 6:30pm on Friday.