Jags Win Big At The 2nd Annual Wiregrass Classic
South Alabama Football coach Joey Jones oversees his team warming up at Rip Hewes Stadium for the Wiregrass Classic.
It was evident, even before kickoff at the Wiregrass Classic in Dothan, that South Alabama outmatched Edward Waters. Not to belittle the Tigers, but these two teams could not have been any more different. Edward Waters is a private, traditionally black NAIA college with an enrollment of 839 students. While South Alabama is a public school with an enrollment of over 15,000 students.
But Edward Waters has a rich and interesting history. It was founded and initially named “Brown Theological Institute” in 1866 specifically to educate newly freed black slaves. Then the school experienced financial difficulties and was forced to close for nearly a decade. In 1883 it reopened as “East Florida Conference High School” then later it was renamed “East Florida Scientific and Divinity School”.
Within ten years, the educational program was extended and it’s name was changed to Edward Waters College. In 1901 it was destroyed by a fire. Then in 1904 they acquired the site that it currently resides and began to rebuild.
It was first accredited as a junior college in 1955 and by 1960 the college had restored its four-year cirriculum. Then in 1979, the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accredited the school as a four-year institution.
Of the 839 enrolled, over 90% of them rely on financial aid and the school has been growing. It was highlighted in among “The Best of Florida Schools in 2004” for the “Biggest Growth for Private Colleges.”
In 2001, the school returned to football after a 34 year absence. In 2004 they joined the newly formed South East Atlantic Conference (SEAC) with two other schools, Webber International University and Concordia College. After Concordia was unable to gain membership into the NAIA, the conference dissolved at the conclusion of the 2008 season. EWC won the conference title in 2004, then shared by EWC and Concordia in 2007 and finally a three way share between all of the schools in 2008.
Edward Waters is currently in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference with Dillard University, Fisk University, Southern University at New Orleans, Tougaloo College and Xavier University of Louisiana.
So the differences between South Alabama and EWC are striking.
As for the game, there was no question who was going to win from the outset of the game at Rip Hewes Stadium. Within the first two minutes the Jags had forced a three and out, returned the punt to the EWC 35 yard line and ran two plays to score a touchdown. A 16 yard rush followed by a 19 yard touchdown pass from Brennan Sim to Courtney Smith. The point after attempt was mishandled by Taylor Noon who picked it up and scrambed to the corner of the end zone for two points to put the Jags up 8-0 with 13:03 left in the first quarter.
The Jags second offensive series was stopped and was forced to punt. But on Edward Waters’ first offensive play, the pass was intercepted by the defense setting up another short field. Brandon Ross would go in from four yards for the second touchdown, capping off a four play 41 yard drive in 1:12. The PAT by Jordan Means put the Jags up 15-0 with 7:53 left in the first quarter.
The next EWC possession ended in a three and out. The punt was returned to the EWC 35 yard line to set up the Jags with a short field once again. This time it took the Jags six plays to cover 35 yards. The drive was capped off by a three yard touchdown pass from Brennan Sim to Lemontis Gardner and the PAT by Jordan Means. This put the Jags up 22-0 with 3:03 left in the first quarter.
On the Tigers ensuing possession, the second play from scrimmage was picked off by senior Justin Dunn and returned 41 yards for a touchdown. The PAT was successful by Jordan Means to put the Jags up 29-0 with 2:09 left in the first quarter.
The Tigers were picked off again on their ensuing possession. The Jags would cover 62 yards in six plays and using 1:52 off of the clock to score another touchdown. The drive was capped off by Brennan Sim’s third touchdown pass of the game, this one covering 10 yards to Bryant Lavender. Jordan Means added the point after to put the Jags up 36-0 with 14:11 to play in the second quarter.
A three and out by the Tigers was followed by a three and out by the Jags as well. Then after EWC moved the ball some, their drive ended with their fourth interception. With Ray Cotton taking over the quarterbacking duties, the Jags went 58 yards in six plays using 3:31 off of the clock to score for the last time in the first half. The drive was capped off by a 20 yard touchdown run by Cotton with the point after by Lawson McGlon to put South Alabama up 43-0 at halftime.
Coach Jones and his coaches took the pedal off somewhat, in the second half. The Jags did score three more touchdown, a 15 yard run by Ryan Scott, and a pair by Michael Nevels of 12 and 11 yards respectively. All three point after attempts were successfully made by Lawson McGlon.
The Jags ended the game with 30 first downs, 391 yards rushing and 112 yard passing for a total of 503 yards total offense. The Tigers had 5 first downs, 97 yards rushing, 47 yards passing for a total of 144 yards of offense.
South Alabama rushed eight different running backs. Kendall Houston had four carries with 48 yards, Santuan McGee had three touches for 46 yards, Ellis Hill eight carries for 46 yards, T.J. Glover had four carries for 41 yards, Ryan Scott had seven carries for 44 yards, Michael Nevels had six carries for 35 yards, Johnny Lockett had six carries for 33 yards and Brandon Ross had only three carries for 16 yards. The leading rusher for the team was Ray Cotton with seven carries and gaining 78 yards.
Three quarterbacks made it into the game. Brennan Sim started in place of Myles Gibbon and went 6 of 11 for 85 yards and three touchdowns. Ray Cotton went 1 for 3 for 16 yards while Gabe Graham went 1 of 2 for 11 yards.
Eight different Jaguar receivers caught passes but none of them caught more than one. Jereme Jones lead the receivers with 21 yards.
The Edward Waters quarterbacks combined to go 2 of 15 with four interceptions against the South Alabama defense.
The kickoff woes continued against the Tigers. Jordan Means kicked four times with two of them going out of bounds. Michel Chapuseaux also kicked four but only one of his went out of bounds. Lawson McGlon kicked twice with none of them going out of bounds.
Umcambre Williams lead the defense with five tackles. Jake Johnson recorded the lone solo sack.
The defensive player of the game came from Edward Waters while the offensive player of the game was Brennan Sim.
Coach Jones spoke after the game saying, “I think they performed very well. The bottom line is we had better players than they did. They really had a class bunch. I thought it was a well-played game.”
He continued, “We got a lot of guys in the game. Our coaches had a plan of who they were going to play if we got up so we could get some good out of this game, and I think we did. Our ones went out there and played well. The two lines stayed in there a good amount of time. They haven’t had a lot of reps, so it was good to get them in the game. We have to have some depth for the end of the year, and we keep trying to develop that. That was the great thing about today, we were able to reward those guys who have been working their tails off all summer long. They deserve it. There’s not many chances when you can do that, and we were glad to be able to get them in.”
The Jags return home to face Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday, October 2 with kickoff scheduled for 4pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
South Alabama’s Plan For Their Receivers
The Jaguars have been doing a great job this season getting lots of receivers playing time. Why are they getting so many players into the game? It’s not because they are playing lowly teams. Nicholls State was a huge test for the Jags and they still had nine receivers catching passes and only one catching more than one pass. The Jags are building depth.
Wide receivers coach Ron Antoine, offensive coordinator Greg Gregory and Coach Jones have a plan. They want to play several receivers to build depth but more importantly they want to pressure the defensive secondary. Defenses rarely substitute secondary players. Yes they will bring in different package like a nickel or dime package if necessary. But from play to play, defenses rarely sub cornerbacks.
This is what the Jaguars, or any other team for that matter, wants to exploit. If you can plug in any receiver at any time, the pressure is on the secondary every single play to cover those players. The pressure is not only on the secondary to cover, but also to fight off blocks as well.
The Jaguar receivers have done an excellent job this season of bringing it every single play. They block their assignments every play all the way down the field. As you can see, this is some serious pressure on the defensive secondary.
This also serves another purpose. Courtney Smith is a senior this season for the Jaguars. This is a way to build depth. So, when your team has seniors graduate you don’t have a vacuum of talent when they leave. This will be very important as South Alabama progresses from being unclassified to a full FBS member school.
One one defensive coordinator in recent memory would actually substitute secondary players. That coach was Mickey Andrews at Florida State. His secondary was very good in the 90’s because of this.
Combine South Alabama’s receiving corps with running backs like Brandon Ross, Kendall Houston, Santuan McGee and T.J. Glover the offense is building depth to attack defenses.
This missing key right now is depth in the secondary. The linebacking corps had good depth and talent. The defensive line has become deeper but could still use more depth. The secondary has come up with big plays, yes. But they also have given up several big plays.
This is yet another example of how South Alabama and it’s coaching staff have taken the right approach in bringing football to the school.
C.J. Bennett Suspended For Wiregrass Classic
It was announced today by head football coach Joey Jones that freshman C.J. Bennett has been suspended for the team game tomorrow. Coach Jones announced that Bennett violated team rules and thus will not play.
Coming into the season, Bennett was listed as the Jaguars second string quarterback behind starter Myles Gibbon. However, Gibbon left last weeks game against Nicholls State with a non-serious knee injury and most likely will not play against Edward Waters in the Wiregrass Classic. Brennan Sim played the majority of the game after Gibbon left the game and will most likely start tomorrow.
South Alabama Announces “Jag Lunch”
The University of South Alabama athletics Department announced today that starting next week, before the Jags play Nicholls State, Coach Joey Jones will be featured at a “Jag Lunch”.
Doors will open for the “Jag Lunch” at 11:30am along with food service. The program will begin with Coach Jones at 12:15pm where he will both speak and highlight coaches’ video for the attendees. Cost to attend the lunch is $10 and will be held at Wintzell’s Oyster House on Airport Boulevard.
The announced dates, which are on Wednesday’s, on September 15, October 6, 20, 27 and November 10.
Also, below is another video from the pep rally on Thursday evening before the Jaguars game against Pikeville. Sorry, the videos I filmed during the game did not turn out well. Hope you enjoy the video.
Jags Pep Rally Video
Here is a video from the South Alabama pep rally on Thursday evening. It has a short speech by Coach Jones and some comments from Jerron Mitchell and Justin Dunn. It also includes some very nice play by the South Alabama Marching Band, among them the Alma Mater and the Jaguar Fight Song. Hope you enjoy!
Also, don’t forget to watch the Coach Joey Jones TV Show on UTV 44 at 10:30am.
Jag Defense Plays Better In Second Scrimmage Of 2010
Myles Gibbon, running the first series with the first-team offense, scores the first touchdown of the scrimmage.
The second scrimmage of the preseason was a bit more even than the first one last week. Less touchdowns but also less turnovers. Which pleased Coach Jones when it was all said and done.
Several players were out due to injury on the defense. None severe, just nagging injuries which the coaching staff decided to sideline for the scrimmage. Randon Carnathan, Justin Dunn, Tim Harvey, Jake Johnson, Romelle Jones and Alex Page all sat out the scrimmage.
The Jags ran about 93 plays, close to their goal of 100. Overall the offense gained 251 yards with the first team defense only allowing 48 in their seven series on the field. The only two turnovers of the day were recovered by Jarred Williams and Montavious Williams, but both were committed by Ellis Hill, but one was a bad exchange from Brennan Sim. Anthony Taylor made back-to-back sacks for the first-team defense while Kendell Bagnerise added one right after Taylor to back the offense up 18 yards in one possession.
With so many playmakers out on defense, Jonathan Cameron and Bryson James led the defense each with four tackles. Zach Rone lead the second team defense with five tackles.
Myles Gibbon led the first team offense 80 yards in seven plays on their first possession to score the first touchdown. Brandon Ross made the big gain on the series with a 39 yard run, including knocking a defensive back flat on his tail, to set up the touchdown. After two runs by Santuan McGee, Gibbon ran to the left and made the corner of the end zone for the score.
C.J. Bennett led the first team offense the second time they were on the field. He would lead the offense down the field but could not get into the end zone and they settled for a 37 yard Michel Chapuseaux field goal.
The second first-team touchdown would be from a combination of Gibbon and Bennett under center. With the offense facing fourth down from the defense’s 43 yard line, Myles would hit Bryant Lavender for a 14 yard gain on the left sideline. Then Bennett would enter the game who would fine Ralph Turner open on the right side of the field for a 29 yard touchdown. The series covered 60 yards in six plays.
The second-team offense would have it’s best drive of the day on their first possession of the game with Bennett at quarterback. He would start the series off with a 14 yard completion to Lamontis Gardner. Then after a handoff for a short gain, he complete a pass to Gardner for eight more yards and a second first down of the series. But the series would come to an end after a fumbled handoff on third down was recovered by the offense and forced them to punt.
Bennett went 5 of 8 passing for 65 yards and a touchdown, Brennan Sim completed three for 27 yards and Gibbon completed one for 14 yards. Corey Besteda, Gardner and Lavender each caught two passes while Ralph Turner led the receivers with a touchdown and 29 yards on one reception.
Coach Jones had the following to say after the scrimmage: “We changed things up, but I thought we looked a little sharper. There were a few penalties out there, which we have to get corrected in the next couple of weeks, but I thought it was a good day. It was more like a game, we called all the special teams out there so they had to be alert on the sidelines. My overall feeling is that the offense and defense got better, and special teams were pretty consistent.”
He continued, “We will evaluate this film and go into next week with an idea of who our ones and twos will be. Of course, it’s not over because these kids compete for jobs every day, but we have to find a starting point when we begin next week.”
Jags Preseason Camp Coming To A Close
Freshman T.J. Glover out running the defense in the Jaguars first scrimmage.
Coach Jones and his staff shortened Thursday’s practice by a half hour. Although the practice was still an hour and 45 minutes long, it was a just reward for two weeks of hard work on the practice field. Of the last 14 days the Jaguars practiced 13 of those days and well Coach Jones does not want overwork them.
Early in the practice on Thursday, the Jags worked on skeleton, 7-on-7 passing drills which started with the offense starting in the red zone but ended with the offense facing third down inside it’s own 20 yard line. Later in the practice, the offense and defense worked against the scout teams.
Later still, the Jags would run several situational drills including the first-team offense running first and 10 plays from their own 35 yard line. During the first series of the drill, Myles Gibbon connected with Santuan McGee in the flat for 15 yards. Brandon Ross ran for 10+ yards. The second series saw Ross and McGee both have runs of ten plus yards.
The second team offense struggled against the defense by only converting one third down play against them and suffering a sack. But Myles took a low snap and scrambled for a first down.
Friday the team visited Camp Grace instead of working out. Coach Jones and his staff did the same thing close to the end of preseason camp, which officially ends this weekend as South Alabama resumes classes on Monday morning.
Saturday morning the Jags will hold their second scrimmage of the preseason at 9am and according to Coach Jones, several positions are still up for grabs. The staff is also hoping to start brining into focus a fuzzy depth chart too.
“We’re trying to still evaluate players,” Coach Jones said. “Obviously, we’re trying to progress offensively and defensively with all of our packages, but we’re still looking at individuals. We can see things are starting to fall into place as far as the depth chart goes, but we obviously won’t make any decisions until after Saturday. After this week, we’ll focus more on polishing our offense and defense.”
The coaches are hoping for a better scrimmage from last Saturday’s. The defense gave up three big plays of 40 yards or more, two of which went for touchdowns. But, on the other hand, the offense turned the ball over three times and gave up three sacks.
Freshmen C.J. Bennett and T.J. Glover both showed some brilliance in last weeks scrimmage. Bennett threw for 162 yards on 7 of 13 passing with two touchdowns. Glover led with three receptions for 106 yards, including one for 70 yards.
“We did some good things, but overall too many mistakes were made,” Coach Jones mentioned of last week’s scrimmage. “I think the execution offensively needs to get better, and we need fewer negative plays. Defensively, we don’t need to give up big plays. Last week, they (defense) played well but just gave up too many of those. I think if we can cut that out, then that would be a plus on the defensive side of the ball.”
Unfortunately, C.J. Bennett was one offender on negative plays. He needs to learn how to get rid of the ball to avoid sacks and negative plays.
Jaguars Back On The Practice Field, News About Darrow Fisher
The Jags started preseason camp with nine consecutive days of practice that culminated in Saturday’s scrimmage. Then the team had a much needed day off on Sunday and hit the practice field for two hours on Monday in shells. The last hour of practice was offense versus defense even though they were not wearing full pads.
Coach Jones was pleased with the offense saying, “Offensively, I thought that we came out with a little more spirit today. I saw some good leadership there, and the coaches were coaching harder, I really liked what I saw on that side of the ball this morning.”
Coach Jones was also quoted, “I saw a great attitude today. Actually, when we came out here you could see that some of the things that were mistakes on the film [from Saturday’s scrimmage] were actually fixed, and I thought it might take two or three days to do that. We still have more to work on, because the challenge is they have to be better by Saturday than they are today. If they take that attitude they will be able to accomplish that.”
On Tuesday the Jags were back in full contact drills once again. The defense came up big in the third down red zone drills. They broke up four passes while holding the offense to two yards or less in 14 of 18 snaps. On the fifth play in the drill, Enrique Williams sacked the quarterback, but on the next play C.J. Bennett would find Bryant Lavender for an 18 yard touchdown.
However, the defense would tighten up allowing a total of four yards in the next five plays. But the offense would find a way to get into the end zone when Raymond Cotton would score on an eight yard run. Then the final six plays of the drill the offense would not gain positive yardage with three plays being pass breakups.
A more detailed overview of the practice is available on the usajaguars.com website.
The word coming from campus is that defensive back Darrow Fisher is out for the season with a torn ACL from Saturday’s scrimmage. This is not good news for a thin secondary which been a concern of the Jaguars coaching staff.
South Alabama’s First Scrimmage of 2010 Preseason Coverage
T.J. Glover running down the sideline on his 79 yard reception.
The defense started the scrimmage by allowing a 70 yard touchdown pass from Myles Gibbon to Lamontis Gardner but the defense would come back stronger after that by not allowing another score for the next seven series.
The defense would intercept two passes and recover a fumble during the seven series, scoreless stretch by the offense. C.J. Bennett would lead the offense to drive from mid field to score. However, the touchdown pass went through the intended receivers hands short of the end zone but Bryant Lavendar would catch it in the end zone for the touchdown.
After a break, the offense came back with something to prove. The offense, lead by Gibbon, would see three holding calls on the opening drive of the second half. However they worked hard and eventually put the ball into the end zone. T.J. Glover made it into the end zone twice but each were called back on holding penalties. Hill eventually got the ball into the end zone.
There would be three more touchdowns by the offense with two of them being keyed off of big plays. Santuan McGee had a 42 yard touchdown and 79 yard reception by T.J. Glover set up the offense for another score.
Myles finished 6 of 8 for 119 yards and two touchdowns. C.J. Bennett went 7 of 13 for 162 yards and two touchdowns and an interception. T.J. Glover had two catches for 106 yards. Corey Besteda, Lemantis Gardner and Ralph Turner all had multiple receptions. Brandon Ross only rushed twice for 23 yards. Cotton and Ellis Hill both had 17 yards rushing.
Enrique Williams lead the team in tackles and added an interception. Bryson James added three stops and an interception as well. Kendell Bagnerise and Rodney Thomas both recorded sacks with Thomas.
Watch the video of Coach Jones’ speaking after the scrimmage in our previous post by clicking here. Plus check out http://local15tv.com/ and http://fox10tv.com/ for coverage of the post scrimmage talk as well.
Full Scrimmage Coverage Read more
Jags First Day In Pads Plus Media Day Coverage
Tuesday was the Jaguars’ first day in full pads and it did not disappoint. An hour long, 70 play “mini” scrimmage in addition to Coach Jones, the coordinators and a handful of players talking with the media to preview the 2010 season.
Reflecting on the scrimmage, coach Jones thought it wasn’t very good. Actually he said, “I think that our practice today was marginal at best. It was our fifth day of practice in a row, we had a heavy lifting session yesterday afternoon so there legs were tired, it was our first day in full pads, it was hot and we had a scrimmage. We didn’t have a good energy level today for the first time this camp. Our first four days were great, but today we hit a wall.”
He continued, “Is that okay? It will be if we come back tomorrow and work our tails off. I’m okay with having a bad day because sometimes I think it shakes you up. You rattle the tree, shake out all the bad apples and then you continue. I don’t want every practice to be happy, sometimes you have to struggle to succeed.”
In the press conference on Tuesday, Coach Jones talked about looking into the future of the program and their goal to be a big-time Division I program. He spoke about how the kids understand the process they are going through and how they have to work hard to get there. He said from day one they have taken a Division I mentality and that they will continue to do so, from the classroom to the weight room and to the practice field.
Coach Jones himself and the players are all excited to move up in competition by facing all four year institutions, including several Division I-AA schools.
Coach Jones went on to mention some of the differences between last year and this year. They tried to get the best player they could get and get them out on the field. Last year they didn’t have any standards, they went out and did their best. Now they can use last season as a standard to improve upon.
During recruiting, they had higher standards. They only went for players better than what they had on the roster. I’m sure this was a time consuming task as they brought in some really good players last year.
My favorite segment was about the character of this seasons team. He said, “It’s probably as good as I’ve ever been around, and I’ve had some great teams with tremendous character. We preach that and believe in it, it’s something we can control. We can’t control how big they are, if we have a 6-foot-3, 270-pound lineman that’s what he is. But we can do something about character and the choices we make, and we really harp on that. I think our edge is doing things that are intangible. By that I mean, the work ethic and commitment to the team. We stress that every day.”
In the state of Alabama their are two teams which everyone compares every other team against. Nick Saban’s philosophy is character and work ethic. Coach Jones philosophy, similarly, is to outwork their opponent. But unlike other programs, South Alabama is not where they want to be yet and that gives them a fire to work harder than the team on the other sideline.
However, he still stressed that they are taking great strides but that they are not ready to face a Division I opponent yet. Having North Carolina State scheduled for next season, the Jags have work to do and a target to meet.
Talking about preseason camp, coach Jones said he stressed to his team that they are going to win games this week. The Jags are in the middle of a nine consecutive day stretch of practice. With heat indices of around 108 degrees, he stressed that the one who fight through these workouts will be on top in the fall.
Coach Jones spoke about the ghosts of an undefeated season. “We’re fighting our success last year a little bit. Just because we were 7-0 doesn’t mean anything. If we had been 0-7 it wouldn’t have meant anything to me either. I think that as coaches and players we need to look at it through regular glasses rather than rose-colored glasses because we all get comfortable and think everything is okay. We have to keep looking to be critical of ourselves no matter what the circumstance.”
When he spoke about offseason transfers, he said “Sometimes they fall into your lap, it just kind of works out.” The excitement of a new program and opportunity for early playing time is quite alluring. They can also see how they are doing thing right from the coaching staff to the facilities. Those kind of things are quite compelling to very good players at big schools where they don’t see much playing time.
Coach Jones addressed South Alabama’s quarterback talk by saying, “We are trying to get every one of our quarterbacks reps now, I’m not going to rank them one through four because they all have good qualities. We have a good problem. It will filter out as time goes, and we will have to make a decision in three weeks.”
Then he spoke about Brennan Sim specificly, “Brennan’s a leader. When I talked to [head strength and conditioning coach] Justin Schwind last summer when Brennan came, he told me that he was one of the best leaders we had in the weight room, and he had just gotten there. He is one of those guys who is just a born leader. I haven’t known him since he was growing up, but when he walks into a room there is a presence he has. Brennan has a calming effect on our young players, he has an experience factor that a lot of guys on the team don’t have right now.”
Defensive Coordinator Bill Clark spoke next about the defense. He spoke about how he could not think of how last season could have gone any better from a team standpoint. But that they will have a larger challenge to tackle this season with back to back weeks of games. Last season they had several breaks between games. His list of positives was that they have lots of veterans returning from last season. Last year they were trying to find out who could play, this season they will have to step up.
Players have returned bigger and stronger and they are working on developing depth. One position that he feels that they have developed depth is at cornerback. A position of concern is safety and that the coaches are working on that. He is said that the coaches were very excited about linebacker position with a lot of depth. Defensive end, however, is a position he is looking for players to step up in.
He has a goal of getting three players at each position for depth. They want the defense to be dynamic, which means they need the new players to come in, get the scheme down and play at the level they expect them to. It will take some time in order to progress to that point.
Offensive coordinator Greg Gregory said that he expects the offense to be a good football team since they have so many players returning with experience. The continued by saying that they are fostering as much competition at every position as they can. Returning players know that they have pressure on them from the new guys.
However, the Jaguars are returning a good core of skill players in addition to the entire offensive line from last season. Add into the mix the “exceptional” group of freshmen and incoming players and he thinks the pressure and competition will drive them to be even better.
They know that they need to improve since every team on the schedule this season is better than any team they faced last season.
The hot question, again, was about the quarterback position. Coach Gregory said he thought Sim was a little better than Gibbon in the spring, but only slightly. But C.J. Bennett has picked things up quickly since he was there all summer. The newest addition, Raymond Cotton, is in a position where he is playing catch up since he wasn’t on campus during the summer. He was quick to point out that he was very talented. But he ended the QB talk by saying, “The bottom line is we’re going to play whoever gives us the best chance to win games.”
There was no hesitation from Coach Gregory when he spoke about what the offense needed to get better. “The key to getting better offensively is the line. I think a great quarterback deflects praise to the offensive line, because it’s not going to happen if we don’t have an offensive line. I think that’s where we have to make the biggest step in our football program. We’re a little bit undersized with our returning guys, but they are athletic and we need them to step up and play at a high level. Our freshman are just young, but they have size. We’re trying to find out who can provide us depth at each position, but I think we have some young guys who are going to help us out up front.”
He spoke similarly about the freshman running backs as he did about the quarterbacks saying, “The best players will be out there, and if they’re capable of playing, we’ll get them out there. They all have a chance.”
For a more in depth read and quotes from players, check out www.usajaguars.com.