Red Team Dominates South Alabama’s Spring Football Game
South Alabama held their spring football game on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Brandon Bridge threw for 114 yards and a touchdown while Xavier Johnson rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown as the Red team defeated the Blue team 38-0.
Bridge completed 7-of-10 with three completions going for 25 yards or more including a 31 yard touchdown pass to Jereme Jones less than three minutes into the game.
ON the next drive, Bridge found Terrance Timmons in the right flat for a 35 yard gain to the Blue one-yard line. Johnson would score on the next play.
Johnson reeled off a 28 yard run on the teams second possession of the game.
Trey Fetner hit Timmons for a 19-yard gain to set up Kendall Houston’s four-yard touchdown. Houston rushed for 41 yards on six attempts as the Red team held a 241-3 yard rushing advantage and outgained the Blue team 405-77 overall.
Timmons led the Red team with four catches for 59 yards while Marvin Shinn caught four passes for 35 yards.
The Red defense was led by Maleki Harris with seven tackles. Jerome McClain added three himself and Roman Buchanan and Jesse Kelley both had two each. Jaylan Daniels had five tackles with three sacks on the day.
Berren Tyson rushed for 69 yards on seven carries. Brett Sheehan completed 5-of-11 passes for 58 yards to lead the blue team. David Kelley had three catches for 35 yards to lead the Blue teams. T’Quan Robinson had a game-high seven tackles for blue with Antonio London and Terrance Slaughter each adding five tackles. Raymone Wiggins came away with the only takeaway of the day for either team when an interception in the end zone to end the Red teams’ first possession of the second half.
“I think we achieved what we wanted to today,” said head coach Joey Jones. “We got a bunch of people in the game, after the first half we took a lot of guys out, even after the first quarter some of the starters were out. Our goal was to get everybody on the field and get a lot of reps to evaluate them, and I think we did that today.”
“I thought Brandon threw the ball real well, he had a couple of touchdowns that were dropped,” Jones continued. “Xavier ran the football really well, he has shown up this spring. And it looked like Desmond LaVelle made a lot of tackles.”
The spring game was not the final practice for the Jaguar football team, They have one week of practice left during the spring season. They will have three sessions this week culminating with a final scrimmage on Saturday at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus.
“We want to work on some of our opponents for next year, and there are two areas we need to work on a little bit more: goal-line, short-yardage situations and no-huddle, fast-tempo stuff on offense and defense,” coach Jones said of the upcoming week. “We want to get those guys working against each other at least two more practices.”
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguars will host a three game series against Sun Belt newcomers UT-Arlington this weekend beginning tonight at 6:30pm if the weather permits. Game two on Saturday is set for 3pm and will be televised by the Sun Belt Network and also will be available on WatchESPN.com. The final game of the series will get underway at noon on Sunday.
All three games will be streamed from the University website as well as broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
Softball
The Lady Jaguars will also be hosting a three game weekend series against Louisiana-Monroe starting with a double-header on Saturday starting at 1pm with the second game set to start at 3pm. They will wrap up the weekend series on Sunday with a 1pm start.
Football
The Jaguars will have their annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday at 11am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Though this will not be their final spring practice. Gates will open to the parking lot around 8am.
Track and Field
On Thursday, the men’s track and field team set three new school records at the 87th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.
Senior Connor Smith earned individual honors in the Section ‘B’ men’s pole vault with a 5.20m vault which was good enough to break his own all-time Jaguar best by 1/10 of a meter and to lead the field of 16.
Garrett Schumacher toppled his own record in the decathlon by finishing with 6,991 points to claim 11th overall. He entered Thursday with 3,644 points through five events. He then set new personal records in the pole vault (4.80m), discus throw (40.51m) and 100-meter hurdles (15.94m).
Freshman Renaldo Frechou set a new record in the hammer throw for the third time this season. His throw of 63.27m on his sixth and final attempt put him 5th in the 25 man field.
Bobbie Williamson also put up a career-high measure of 59.53m in the women’s hammer throw which was good enough for second place all-time in the Jaguar history books.
They will continue today in Texas with Jan-Louw Kotze in discus and Tyler Agee in the 110-meter hurdles.
Jaguar Football Held Final Practice Prior To Red-Blue Spring Game On Saturday
The Jaguar football team held their final practice before their annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday to be held at 11am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The team practiced in full pads for around two hours with sessions focusing on multiple situations. They also worked on kickoff coverage and returns. Some of the situational drills included first, second and third down situations, red zone drills and two-minute drills.
Prior to the situational drills the team worked on inside run drills and 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills. The defense continued to install coverage and blitz packages. All phases of the game saw time devoted toward individual skills and position workouts.
The teams for the spring game will be determined later this week.
The Spring Game is open to the public with free parking at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. They will get started at 11am. Afterwards on campus the #12 ranked Jaguars softball team will host ULM for a double-header starting at 1pm and the baseball team will host UT-Arlington at 3pm.
Go Jags!
Jags Look Good In First Scrimmage Of Spring Practice
Saturday morning the Jaguar football team held their first scrimmage of spring practice. Highlighting the scrimmage was Brandon Bridge with three touchdown passes and Xavier Johnson rushing for three more as well.
Bridge was 7-of-15 for 135 yards and also added 37 yards on the ground, including a four-yard touchdown run on his final carry of the scrimmage to total 172 yards of total offense.
Bridge found Shavarez Smith for a 40-yard touchdown about midway through the scrimmage. His final two completions of the scrimmage both went for touchdowns with a 23 yard pass to Braedon Bowman and a 22 yard pass to Smith again.
Johnson rushed 11 times for 44 yards to share the team lead for the Jaguars. He scored from distances of 2, 15 and 1 yard out. Berren Tyson also rushed for 44 yards on nine carries including a three yard touchdown on the final snap of the scrimmage. Terrance Timmons rushed for 38 yards on seven carries, Martavious Stewart added 37, Trey Fetner added 33 and Grant Powell added 28 on the day. Kendall Houston scored the first touchdown of the scrimmage on a two-yard run.
Fetner went 6-of-9 passing for 123 yards while Powell completed 5-of-8 passes for 52 yards.
Smith led the receivers with 62 yards receiving. Johnson added a catch for 40 yards and Jereme Jones caught a pass for 22 yards. Caleb Hayman also had a catch for 41 yards as well.
The Jaguar offense averaged nearly six yards per play and gained a total of 624 yards on the day.
The Jaguar defense held strong early and did not allow any points in the first seven drives until Aleem Sunanon hit a 35-yard field goal to end the shutout. The first-team defense was led by the trio of Terrell Brigham, Antonio Carter and Desmond LaVelle who each had five tackles. Carter intercepted a deflected pass which ended the offense’s opening possession. Theo Rich had two of the six sacks on the day.
On the second team defense, Raheem Robinson led with seven tackles while Nigel Green and Josh Carroll both had interceptions.
Zac Henry hit a 40-yard field goal during the scrimmage.
“Brandon made some big plays and he ran the ball well, he didn’t make many mistakes,” head coach Joey Jones said after the scrimmage. “I think he can make some better choices where he is throwing the ball at times, but overall I thought he had a good day.”
“Our defensive front is playing extremely well, especially our ones,” Jones continued. “When our twos get in you can definitely see a difference, so we have to develop some depth there. But our ones on defense look pretty good, they are flying to the football and having a good time.”
“I thought it was good, our guys have improved,” Jones stated. “We’ve gotten better over the last two weeks and eight practices, but if we don’t improve over the next two weeks we’re going to waste time. We’ve got to get better while we have pads on because in football the only time you can really improve is by being out there in full gear tackling.”
“If we can continue to get better it will be a good spring, but we have to finish strong.”
After a day off the Jaguars returned to the practice field on Monday with a practice lasting over two hours to begin the third week of spring drills.
The Jags used 45-minutes to work on fundamentals with the rest of practice devoted to mostly offense versus defense work. A 15-minute session of 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills occured before the final 40 minutes of practice beign devoted to team drills.
The first period of team drills worked on defensive blitzes and the second period focused on red zone drills. The final 32 plays of the practice were situational drills where the offense started at their own 20 yard line. Earlier in the practice, the offense practiced a situational drill facing 2nd-and-long, needing seven yards for the first.
As is a bit of the norm for the team, they open practice with some special teams work and end it with some special teams work. Likewise, they began with punting and ended with punt return.
“There was great energy today, sometimes you have a little lull when you come back from a scrimmage after that second week of practice of the spring but I thought it was great,” Jones said after the practice. “They brought it today and I am real proud of them. Offensively I thought Brandon had a great day throwing the ball, our receivers caught the ball well and ran real sharp routes. One thing we are struggling with a little bit is our snaps, they are all over the place at times, we have to fix that.”
“We could see we have a few guys who are starting to step up in a role where they can play,” Jones said concerning the film study after the first scrimmage. “Offensively we improved from week one, Clay Machen had a real good day and the line blocked well overall. Our ones played really, really well on defense, but we have to find some more depth.”
The team will have Tuesday off before returning to the practice fields on Wednesday. The annual spring game is slated for Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium beginning at 11am.
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.
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
Read more
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 Opens Spring Football Practice
The South Alabama football hit the practice field to begin spring practice on Monday. This was the first of 15 sessions this spring.
The first 45 minutes had both the offense and defense each working on one of the two practice fields. The offense ran a multitude of drills broken down into five minute segments. The defense used a 35-minute segment to work on coverages and blitz packages.
Later in the practice, the offense and defense met in 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills. They then worked on each of the two fields, one artificial and the other natural grass, against each other. Later another 15 minute period of 7-on-7 skeletons.
They ended the practice with a 15 minute segment of 11-on-11 work focusing on normal down and distances.
As expected, Brandon Bridge entered as the first string quarterback with Trey Fetner entering as the #2. Jereme Jones, Shavarez Smith and Marvin Shinn were the #1 receivers. Danny Woodson Jr. is still recovering from his ruptured achilles injury from last season. Wes Saxton and Braedon Bowman both shared time with the 1’s. Melvin Meggs practiced with the 2s at left guard. He was seeing full action after tearing his ACL prior to fall camp last year. Joseph Scelfo started at center for the Jags and Harrison Louden was playing at left tackle. Daniel Aust played center for the 2’s.
However, they used lots of players at several different positions throughout practice.
“I liked the energy out there today, I thought it was really good. We are challenging our guys to come out every day and get better,” head coach Joey Jones said after practice. “And I thought we had great leadership today. That’s something that we have to continue over time. If we’re going to have a great football team we need to have great leadership. That starts with our senior class and has to work its way down.”
“I know it sounds like a broken record every spring, but we have to focus on fundamentals,” Jones continued. “I told the staff we can’t get ahead of ourselves, we’ve got to perfect something and build on it and not get so far ahead where we are trying to compete and worry about who is winning in the spring as opposed to getting better fundamentally. That’s what we’re really concentrating on.”
“We had more competition last year and I thought it helped us,” Jones said. “This year, I think we’ll have as much competition as we’ve ever had at a lot of positions. Right now you can see that on the offensive line, at receiver and quarterback, and on the defensive line. We’ve got depth at certain positions, but we have to find out who our guys are who are going to play. After these 15 practices we have to know who our ones and twos are going to be because once the summer gets here it’s hard to get the other guys a lot of reps.”
The team will be off on Tuesday before returning to the practice fields on Wednesday.
Several Former Jaguars To Participate In USA Pro Day For NFL, CFL Scouts
South Alabama will be hosting their Pro Day at the school’s fieldhouse and practice fields. A host of former Jaguars will participate in front of NFL and CFL scouts.
Among some of the former Jaguars who are expected to take part in the activities are quarterback Ross Metheny, wide receiver Bryant Lavender, defensive end Pat Moore, linebacker Bryson James, linebacker Enrique Williams, center Matt Calcagnini, defensive back Tyrell Williams, defensive back Charles Watson, linebacker Clifton Crews, defensive back Darrius Morrow and outside linebacker/safety David Hawkins.
Among other players who will be participating from other schools is former USA running back Demetre Baker, who played at Faulkner University last season. Other players participating have ties to the Mobile area.
They will begin at noon with players taking the Wonderlic test, then official heights, weights and other measureables. Physical drills will begin next with the 225-pound bench press, 40-yard dash timing, vertical jump, long jump and other drills.
Then players will go through position drills.
Among the teams expected to be in attendance at Pro Day are Miami, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Jacksonville and New Orleans from the NFL and Lions and Rough Riders from the CFL.
Good luck Jaguars!
The 2014 South Alabama Football Schedule Has Been Released
The Jaguars rally at mid field after they enter the field to just prior to kickoff against Western Kentucky on Saturday, September 14, 2013.
This morning the Sun Belt Conference released the conference schedule. We already knew the Jags non-conference schedule but the SBC schedule was still up in the air at to who the team would be facing.
There are two SEC schools on the schedule and no FCS opponents.
The departure of Western Kentucky and the additions of Georgia Southern and Appalachian State as full members and New Mexico State and Idaho as football only members shuffled the schedules somewhat.
You will notice the Jags do not play ULM or New Mexico State this season, but they do travel to App. State and Idaho while hosting Georgia Southern.
After hosting Kent State, the will return to Ohio to face them again. The Jags will wrap up the season with two non-conference games against an SEC opponent in South Carolina and the Naval Academy.
Below is the full schedule for the Jags this season. Mark your calendars and get those tailgating and traveling plans started. We are just over six months away from kickoff of the 2014 season!
9/6 South Alabama @ Kent State
9/13 Miss. State @ South Alabama
9/20 Georgia Southern @ South Alabama
9/27 South Alabama @ Idaho
10/4 South Alabama @ Appalachian State
10/11 OPEN
10/18 Georgia State @ South Alabama
10/25 Troy @ South Alabama
11/1 South Alabama @ Louisiana-Lafayette
11/8 South Alabama @ Arkansas State
11/15 Texas State @ South Alabama
11/22 South Alabama @ South Carolina
11/28 Navy @ South Alabama
*NOTE: Kickoff times have not yet been announced.
“We are extremely excited about our 2014 schedule. Most people have pointed to this year since the beginning of the football program as one with peaked interest and enthusiasm,” Athletics Director Joel Erdmannstated. “The home portion of the schedule brings a type and level of college football experience to Mobile that has not been here before. Each opponent provides a unique attractiveness to that particular game. Adding even more intrigue is the continued development of our program against quality opponents both at home and on the road, as we will once again be facing multiple programs that have participated in a bowl game the last couple years.”
“Our crowds have continued to ‘mature’ and grow traditions, tailgating a certain way, cheering a certain way in various situations and ultimately creating a home field advantage which is vital to our program’s success. This year’s schedule brings a great opportunity for our loyal fans to renew their season tickets and to bring new people into the Jaguar Nation.”
“We are excited by the types of teams we are playing, obviously it will be very challenging. It’s probably the most challenging schedule we have played to date,” head coach Joey Jones said. “It’s a very challenging schedule, but it’s one that when our players look at it they get excited.”
“A lot of schools play four non-conference teams early in their schedule,” Jones stated. “I like the fact that Navy is at the end of ours.”
“We are going to have to watch how we practice and monitor our players,” Jones said about having five straight games before an off date. “We’re playing all Division I teams with some road games in that stretch, so we are going to have to be smart about how we handle these young men during the season. We have a lot of seniors who will be mentally tough enough to handle this, but we have to make sure that we do things and make decisions throughout the season where we are not wearing our players out.”
“I see Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Arkansas State and Texas State all in a row, that’s a tough road right there,” Jones continued. “But, it’s exciting to have Georgia Southern, a team that beat Florida last year, for our opening home conference game, there should be a lot of buzz around that game. Then we go to Idaho and Appalachian State which is two long trips in a row. I don’t know that you can ever design a schedule that is going to be perfect, so the bottom line is we are going to have to get ready each week to win ball games. That’s the mindset that we are going to have.”
Of the 12 teams on the schedule this season, five of them played in bowl games last season with each of them winning their game. Eight of the 12 teams had a winning season last year as well.