Two SBC Teams Could Be The Next “BCS Buster”
Holly Anderson wrote a great article about the new “busters”. She wrote about how Boise State has become a household name and that TCU and Utah have joined “power” conferences. She identified what she thinks will be the next generation of “busters.”
She mentioned two schools from the Sun Belt Conference. Arkansas State who won the Sun Belt last season with a 10 win season and Florida International who thrilled the nation with back-to-back upsets over Louisville and UCF to go 8-5 on the season. However, Florida International will be joining Conference-USA next season.
Go read her article on SI.com. Hopefully the next time she writes about the next “buster” schools, South Alabama will be included. Former Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters thought so in 2010.
Jags Continue To Make Strides In Preseason Camp
Coach Tommy Perry talks with running back Terrance Timmons during preseason camp.
The Jaguars returned the to the field for their third consecutive day of practice this week and their sixth thus far of preseason camp. It was also their second day of practice in full pads as well.
Coach Jones and his staff backed off slightly today, instead of practicing for nearly three hours, they only went for about two hours in a hot, humid morning practice.
“Practice was good,” Coach Jones explained. “I challenged them today. I thought there were times we were up and times we were a little bit down, the heat really got to us a little bit. But, I kept seeing them fighting back and getting better. When they dipped down, I thought they might be done, but they fought back which I was real proud of. We have to concentrate in those times when it’s hot, the mistakes you make when you’re tired are what loses ball games. We have to be able to concentrate and do what we are supposed to do.”
They began practice with team drills with the ball placed at the offense’s 35-yard line. Returning starter C.J. Bennett began the drill with a 10-yard pass to Bryant Lavender. Demetre Baker picked up at least five yard on rushes twice as well. Ross Metheny and Wes Saxton combined for a 20-yard completion as well. Terrance Timmons made a couple good runs as well.
The final period of team drills had the first and second teams running three goal-line plays from the defense’s three-yard line. Kendall Houston was stopped twice by Ben Giles in the first three plays from scrimmage. Ross Metheny found Wes Saxton in the end zone for a touchdown. Demetre Baker found his way into the end zone twice.
“It was good,” Jones said of the goal-line drills. “The defense came out first series and stopped the offense, but the offense got better on the next set of downs. It was like two heavyweights punching each other, I liked it.”
While being satisfied with how the offense has been progressing so far during preseason camp, he knows what they need to continue to focus on as they progress through camp. “The consistency has to be there,” he stated. “You want them to be successful every play, that’s not going to happen, but the offense hit some plays today. I see some good things. If we can shore up the line of scrimmage where we can really block and protect, we have enough skill to where we will be able to do some good things. We’re putting a lot of pressure on those guys up front to do what they are supposed to do.”
With the Jags facing their first two-a-days beginning tomorrow, Coach Jones knows the players are getting tired. “The biggest thing is we have to fight through,” he said. “We’re at the point where our legs are getting tired, but we will have to battle through that. We’ll back off Friday before the scrimmage, so the coaches are going to stop installing and getting things ready for Saturday. That way we can evaluate the kids better. We don’t want them confused Saturday, we want them to be able to execute and show us what they can do.”
As mentioned above, the Jags will go out onto the practice field twice tomorrow. Their first practice will begin around 7:15am then they will return to the field for the second session around 4:30pm. Each should be around one and a half hours in duration.
Big Ten Conference Considering Goal-Line Cameras
It was announced earlier this year that the Southeastern Conference will experiment with wireless communication for officiating some football games this season. This technology has been used by soccer referees for several years now.
The NCAA football rules committee approved a waiver for the SEC to test the system only in SEC games. They hope this will help officials communicate and to identify pre-snap reads. It could also help the efficiency in penalty enforcement by reducing the need for huddling. It could also help coaches get better explainations.
Yesterday it was released that the Big Ten Conference is strongly considering an experiment with goal-line cameras at some football stadiums. This is meant to help instant replay officials get better reviews for goal-line plays.
Goal line cameras were tested this spring at Michigan and Michigan State. If they are approved they may move around the Big Ten stadiums in 2012. If the Big Ten makes them perminent, they would be installed at all Big Ten stadiums.
Last season Michigan State defeated Wisconsin on a last-second Hail Mary where the ball was deflected and caught right at the goal line. Some of the replays came from angles that were not directly on the goal line, but one angle appeared to be very close to the goal line. After several minutes of review the officials determined that Michigan State did score a touchdown to win the game.
The Jags will play at Nebraska on September 12, 2015 and, if approved, goal-line cameras could be installed by then. Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011.
South Alabama Hits The Field In Full Pads
Quarterbacks Trey Fetner and transfer Ross Metheny participating in position drills.
The Jaguars took to the practice field for their fifth time during preseason camp on Tuesday morning. Though this was the first time they were able to don full pads.
Practice went for almost three hours at the Jaguar Practice Facility behind the Football Fieldhouse on the South Alabama Campus. After warmups, they began with special teams and position-specific drills. Then the offense and defense faced off against each other in first and third-down situational drills which lasted for about 15 minutes.
Highlights from this segment included a 35-yard completion from Trey Fetner to Cameron Broadnax, a 15-yard run by Ross Metheny, a 10-yard gain by T.J. Glover and another 10-yard gain by Fetner. While on the defensive side of the ball, Will Thompson notched a sack and a fumble recovery and Bryson James and Eddy Cabrera both notched a pass breakup each.
The next session was the 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills for about 15 plays. C.J. Bennett went 4-of-7 with a touchdown pass to Wes Saxton for five yards. Metheny recorded three pass completions with one of them going for a 10-yard touchdown to Cameron Broadnax.
The Jaguar offense and defense met in the next session with the ball placed at midfield. Highlights from this drill was a 15-yard rush by Kendall Houston and a 17-yard completion from Bennett to Terrance Timmons. Defensively Thompson added a tackle-for-loss to his daily total, Cabrera added another pass breakup as well and Jake Johnson also recorded a pass breakup.
Coach Jones thought practice went well again. “I thought we had a good practice intensity-wise,” Jones said. “The defense is getting better in pass coverage. I’ve noticed that and talked with coach Walker about that during practice. We’re sticking much tighter to the receivers and the zone coverages are harder to find, so we’re getting better on defense. Offensively, it’s a continuation but I think we’ve made some progress. I really like the effort again. They came out with intensity and practiced hard, so we’re excited about that.”
Senior Linebacker Jake Johnson was excited to put the pads back on as well. “It’s always good to get the pads back on,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for this season since I came here to play. It’s a great opportunity to really show what our team is made of. We have gotten bigger, faster and stronger, which is really key.”
B.J. Scott also mentioned that the Jaguars are getting better. “We had good weather and guys were flying around. We got better today,” said Scott. “We are preparing and getting ready every day, and we’ll see what we can do when it’s time. But we should be better off with the experience and leadership we have on defense this year.”
The Jags will return to the field at 7:15am on Wednesday.
Jags Receive 14th Verbal For 2013 Signing Class
The Jags received their 14th verbal commitment for the 2013 signing class. Jalen Wells, a 6’4″ 230-pound student-athlete from Dublin, GA is listed as a Tight End via 247Sports and an outside linebacker by Scout.com. He is being recruited as a defensive end by the Jaguars.
Wells first started playing organized football last season as he had previously focused on basketball. He was in Mobile for the South Alabama 7-on-7 tournament and impressed the Jaguar coaching staff with his athleticism.
Furthermore, he competed in the Dublin, GA’s track team with some surprised for a player of his size. He competed in the 5000-meter and the triple jump. The 5000-meter is an event where an athletes endurance is pushed to the brink.
Wells is projected to add 40-pounds or more in the future based on his frame and physical abilities which will surely make him a force to be reckoned with for opposing offenses. He is already rated the 80th best tight end in the country and as a three-star athlete by 247sports. Scout.com rates him 123rd among outside linebackers and as a two-star athlete. Wells caught 29 passes for 600 yards and eight touchdowns last season.
He has garnered some interest by Florida, Georgia, NC State, Mississippi State and Georgia Tech but had not received an offer from them. South Alabama made an offer to him in July and he committed late last week.
The other verbal commits are:
- Tiquan Lang CB Lowndes GA. 5’8″ 168-lb 73 tackles, 3 int, 1 kick block, 5 KOR for 201yds and 1TD, 6PR for 113yds in 2011.
- Terrell Pinson FS Itawamba CC 6’3″ 200lb As a freshman he played WR and caught 10 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown.
- Xavier Johnson RB Chamberlain, FL. 5’9″ 170lb Rushed for 1,736 yards and 16 TDs in 2011.
- Caleb Hayman WR/TE Gainesville, FL. 6’1″ 193lb
- Dejon Funderburk WR Washington (Pensacola), FL. 6’0″ 175lb Caught 31 passes for 720 yards adn 7TD’s while rushing for 362 yards and 4TDs.
- Taylor Lamb QB Calhoun, GA. 6’1″ 190lb Had a 73% completion rate for 3,635 yards, 40TDs and 9Ints.
- Justin Jones RB Northeast Miss. JC 5’6″ 180lb Rushed for 920 yards and caught 27 passes as a freshman.
- Roman Buchanan S Daleville, AL. 6’2″ 195lb 72 solo tackles, 45 assists, four sacks, three forced fumbles and two recovered, two interceptions, four passes defended and a field goal blocked as a junior.
- Tevaris McCormick WR Biloxi, MS. 5’9″ 170lb 769 yards receiving, 213 yards rushing and 265 yards on returns with 16 total touchdowns.
- Jacob Chaffin DT Spain Park, AL. 6’3″ 260lb 38 solo tackles, 8 tackles for loss and three sacks as a junior.
- Devon Earl S Hoover HS, AL 5’10” 180lb 61 tackles, 5 INTs, 10 pass deflections and 3.5 tackles for loss as a Junior
- Noah Armstrong OT Lawrence Co. 6’8″ 300lb Offered by Arkansas State, Western Kentucky and Southern Miss.
- Willie Williams Jr DE Americus, GA. 6’2″ 255lbs Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and UCLA were also recruiting him.
- Brandon King 6’2″ 212lbs 118 tackles last season, 70 sol0, 6TFL, 1 sack and 1 forced fumble. Received recruiting interest from a few FBS schools such as Northern Illinois, Maryland, Rutgers and Auburn among other schools.
Jags Make Impression After Off Day
Defensive coordinator Bill Clark working with Jake Johnson and the linebackers during individual drills on Saturday morning.
After the first three practices, although the Friday practice was shortened to about an hour by incliment weather, the Jags got a well deserved day off on Sunday. When the team returned to the practice field Monday morning, the Jags put on an impressive showing.
The players were in shells for the second straight practice which spanned nearly three hours at the Jaguar Practice Facility on the campus of the University of South Alabama. It began with almost 45 minutes of individual skill work by both the offense and defense. Then inside drills began with receivers and defensive backs going one-on-one.
Nearing half-way, the team took a five minute break from the increasing heat of the morning to cool off in the shade provided by an open sided building with cooling fans and gatorade. Before returning to the fields, the Jags had a quick warmup stretch and workout.
When they returned to the field, the offense ran about 16 plays against the defense in the first of two team periods during this practice. They also had a pair of skeleton passing drills which spanned about 10-minutes each. The first was in the open field and the second was near the end zone.
The final of the two team periods was over 20 plays in duration near midfield. C.J. Bennett completed passes to five different Jaguars during the period. Jake Howton caught passes from Bennett and Trey Fetner. But the highlight of the session was a great throw and catch from Bennett to Greg Hollinger down the left sideline. Hollinger made the move from wide receiver to tight end in the spring.
Jaguar head coach Joey Jones commented after practice about the improvements made after the day off. “I thought it was a very good day, we definitely got better in practice today,” he said. “There were some mistakes, they always happen, but overall I thought we improved. The kids came to practice. It was almost a three-hour practice out here and they gave great effort. We had a little lull in the middle, but they fought through and got better at the end. We’re learning and fighting through, we didn’t have anyone cramping today, so it was much better.”
Coach Jones also commented how much the secondary has improved. “In the secondary, at the corner position, our coverage is much better,” he continued. “They are playing a lot of man-to-man and able to cover guys. They got beat a couple of times, but the coverage there is getting much better in the secondary.”
The Jags will take the field on Tuesday in full pads for the first time in preseason camp. “I’m anxious to see what will happen,” Coach Jones said about donning full pads for the first time. “It’s not going to change much, we’re not going to tackle a lot, it’s going to be similar to today. Inevitably, when you get the pads on it livens up a little bit, I think something triggers in their heads that they are supposed to go a little harder. We’re looking forward to it, the great thing about it is you can have the ones go against each other on the line of scrimmage, you can really get something done without worrying about anybody getting hurt.”
Other players of note: Cameron Broadnax, a true freshman wide receiver, has looked good through the first four days of practice. The Jags have a number of smaller receivers, Broadnax’s size will definitely help the Jags.
Qudarius Ford Injures Knee, Out Four To Six Weeks
Qudarius Ford lines up against Wes Saxon during the Jags first practice of preseason camp on Thursday evening.
As reported in our coverage of Saturday’s practice, it was confirmed that Cornerback Qudarius Ford did suffer a knee injury. Head trainer for South Alabama, Jinni Frisbey, said that the staff believes that he injured his Posterior Cruciate Ligament.
Frisbey said that Ford would likely be out for four to six weeks. Ford, who had worked his way into the starting lineup, played in all 10 games last season as a sophomore.
Ford spent the remainder of practice watching from the sidelines with an ice wrap around his knee.
Junior WR Corey Waldon Undergoes Knee Surgery
South Alabama’s Junior Wide Receiver Corey Waldon underwent knee surgery on Friday. Waldon, who was held out of practice on Thursday, will likely miss 3-5 weeks but aim to have him ready for the Jaguars season opener against UTSA on Thursday, August 30.
Trainer Jinni Frisbey said that his surgery went well.
Jags Complete Third Practice Of Preseason Camp Saturday
Head Coach Joey Jones talking with wide receiver Carr Tigner during preseason practice.
South Alabama got started early on Saturday morning to beat the rain chances and completed their full practice schedule for the day. It was overcast most of the morning, but the humidity made it pretty warm. The hydration staff roamed all morning making sure the players were well hydrated to help prevent players from overheating and cramping.
The Jags practiced for almost two-and-a-half hours on Saturday in shells (helmets and shoulder pads) with the offense focusing on inside running plays. In all, the offense ran over 100 plays against the defense working on the inside run, 7 on 7 skeleton passing and full-team drills.
The first half of practice focused on individual drills and fundamentals. The quarterbacks worked with the running backs and receivers in 10 minute periods while the offensive line worked with Coach Matthews. Additionally, the receivers and defensive backs would work one-on-one on while other personnel worked on inside drills.
The defensive linemen and outside linebackers worked on the sleds early in the practice. The secondary and inside linebackers did drills with Coach Clark, the defensive coordinator, while also going through various formations before going against the offense.
During skeleton drills, C.J. Bennett started with back-to-back completions to Jereme Jones and Bryant Lavender. Transfer quarterback Ross Metheny hit Jared Palmer in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown later in the drill. Tyrell Pearson deflected a pass as well as picking off a pass that was deflected by lineback Jake Johnson. Darrius Morrow also broke up a pass during the drill.
Bryant Lavender added three receptions during the final team drills of the day. Corey Besteda added a few catches during the day as well. One fully extended catch and a Tyrone Prothro-like near catch along the sideline, however it appeared that he could not come down with it in the end.
In the first practice, there were four or five players who obviously cramped up. After the practice, the staff made sure to remind them to eat plenty of food and, particularly protein and drink lots of gatorade. It was obvious today that the staff helped the players to correct those problems from the first day.
Coach Jones made note in the post-practice talk that he is seeing the benefits from the offseason strength and conditioning workout regimen. The benefits are not only physical, but mental and in leadership roles.
“We’ve got more leadership on this football team,” Head coach Joey Jones said. “What I am hearing is guys leading others, which hasn’t happened as much in the past. That’s going to make things better as we go through this football season.”
“I was happy with the effort, they came out ready to go and their minds were on it,” he said. “Obviously we have some things that need to be sharpened up, but this was really just our second day of practice. We have a way to go, but I was real proud of the effort.”
“We wanted to concentrate on running the football and stopping the run when you put shoulder pads on for the first time,” Coach Jones further explained. “The inside drill went really well, I thought the defense got after it while the offense hit a few plays. It was good to see the intensity. I’m not worried about results right now, I’m concerned with the process. It’s not going to be perfect now, we know that, but if we continue to work on the process we’ll have a chance to be good later on.”
There were times when the offense looked flat later in practice. But that really is to be expected at this time. Coming into preseason camp, the quarterbacks and receiver tend to have an edge but the defense will typically pick up quickly and surpass the offense. Which I believe explains today. Also, this is the third day of intense workouts in the humid weather, that much intense work will take something out of you this early in camp.
On the injury front, Brandon Ross was dressed out but did not participate in contact drills. However he did hold pads for certain drills. Qudarius Ford iced up his knee late in practice. Will Thompson had an occasional limp. Eddy Cabrera got winded late in the conditioning drills.
In recruiting news, Alabama commit Darius Paige appeared at practice today. Paige, a 6’3″ 275-pound defensive tackle from Pensacola, Florida observed practice with Assistant Athletic Directory Haven Fields. Paige, who committed to the Crimson Tide back in May, has been offered by a number of schools including: Arkansas State, Clemson, FIU, Florida State, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Marshall, Mississippi State, Tennessee and South Alabama.
The Jags will have Sunday off before returning to the practice field on Monday morning at 7:15am.
NCAA Board Of Directors Approve New Bowl Selection Process
As talked about earlier this week on Thunderjags, the NCAA Board of Directors approved a new selection process on Thursday for bowl games. This new process includes the possibility of a team with a 5-7 record to be selected to a bowl game.
Under this new measure, on the contingency that there is not enough bowl-eligible teams or if a bowl cannot be filled by its conference affiliations, the open spots would be filled through a six-tier process.
- First consideration will go to 6-6 teams with a win against any FCS teams (Former Division I-AA) regardless of scholarship numbers.
- Then a 6-6 teams with wins over two FCS schools.
- Follow by a team that finish 6-7 and loses in a conference championship game.
- Next a team that finishes 6-7 that play a 13 game schedule allowed under the Hawaii exception (Hawaii and it’s home opponent).
- Then a transitional team moving from FCS to FBS if they have a 6-6 record.
- Finally A team with a top-five APR that finishes 5-7 on the season could be selected.
There are 124 FBS Schools as of 2012 (Four are transitional teams which will be completing their second year of a two year transition). As you probably know by now they are the University of South Alabama, UT-San Antonio, Texas State and UMass. There are four schools that have a bowl ban for the 2012 season, Ohio State, Penn State, North Carolina and most recently UCF.
However two more institutions, Oregon and Miami (FL.) University have cases pending before the NCAA which could further lower the number of bowl-eligible schools to as few as 114 possibly. There are 35 bowl games which opens 70 slots for bowl teams.
In 2011, there was worry that there would not be enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the needed slots. By the end of the season there were 72 teams for the 70 slots, including a 7-5 Western Kentucky team which was not offered a bowl berth.
While we have been told the Jags would not be eligible for a conference championship or a bowl game, that may not be true now. Depending on how the rule is applied, IF the Jaguars can finish with a least a 6-7 record, they could potentially be eligible to fill any empty slot in a bowl game.
“It’s exciting to even hear that news,” Head coach Joey Jones said. “We had put that completely out of our mind and that next year would be the first year that we would have an opportunity. For our players and our staff, that’s something to work toward.”