Jags Ready To Embark On Toughest Season Yet
On the eve of South Alabama’s season opener against Texas-San Antonio it’s a good time to look at what this season means to the program. After three seasons, the first two undefeated, and a 23-4 record the Jaguars are about to embark on their most challenging quest yet.
Last season they stepped up and faced two FBS teams, the first in the programs history. This season, they will face their first full Division I schedule. The only non FBS school on the schedule is FCS Nicholls State. Additionally, with the Hawaii rule, the Jags will play 13 games in 14 weeks this season including a full eight game Sun Belt schedule.
This is what the Jaguars have been working towards for the last several years. When they take the field, they will be a transitional FBS member.
Coach Jones can finally guage where his team stands in the FBS pecking order. “I think the biggest challenge for us, especially early, will be the depth on our team,” he Jones. “We’ve been recruiting to Division I really just this year. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t have any Division I football players, we do. But do we have the depth that everybody else has because they’ve been recruiting for a while and have 85 scholarships and D-1 players? I would think that will probably be the biggest issue, depth, especially on the offensive and defensive lines.”
What about this season’s schedule? “The most difficult thing is playing 13 games in 14 weeks for us and playing pretty much all Division I opponents,” Jones said. “Whereas in past years we’ve played seven, 10 and 10 (games per season), we had some off weeks and some time to get ready for games. You’re going to get your three or four days of practice and that’s going to be it, then you’re going to have to move on to your next game.”
Gone is offensive coordinator Greg Gregory and in is Robert Matthews brining the spread to South Alabama. Matthews, who learned the spread at Oklahoma State and Southern Miss, will bring a completely different attitude to the offensive side of the ball. The offense will run as quickly as possible with a no-huddle tempo that is designed to keep the defense off guard and guessing what is coming next. Plus it is designed to take advantage of the depth South Alabama has at the skill positions.
The offensive line is where the biggest unknown is located coming into this season. Gone are three starters from the previous two seasons. However back is senior Trey Clark and sophomore Melvin Meggs. In steps Drew Dearman, Chris May and Shaun Artz. Also a second string, Ucambre Williams and possibly Kentucky transfer James Elliott if he receives a hardship waiver from the NCAA. But this is the biggest offensive line the Jaguars have had in it’s short history.
Behind the line, there is plenty of talent on the roster. C.J. Bennett returns as the starter with Virginia transfer Ross Metheny as his backup and redshirt freshman Trey Fetner as the third quarterback. The South Alabama backfield is also stocked with talent. Back are Demetre Baker, Kendall Houston and Ellis Hill from last season along with Brandon Ross returning from a knee injury and redshirt freshman Terrance Timmons among others ready to contribute. At wide receiver back are Jereme Jones, Bryant Lavender, T.J. Glover, Corey Besteda and Tyrome Bivins with true freshman Cameron Broadnax who showed plenty of skill in preseason camp. With two tight ends graduating, Greg Hollinger moved over from wide receiver joining JuCo transfer Wes Saxton to fill their positions.
The defense is arguably the strength of the team. Led by Jake Johnson, the linebackers are the heart of the defense, with Clifton Crews, Enrique Williams, Maleki Harris, Bryson James, Ben Giles and Cordivido Grice to help him out.
The defensive front will need to put more pressure on opposing quarterbacks than in past seasons. Returning ends Anthony Taylor, Romelle Jones, Alex Page and Will Thompson will be joined by JuCo transfer Pat Moore to help towards that goal. At nose and tackle positions they return Randon Carnathan and Andy Dalgleish, who lead the group last season, with help from Montavious Williams, Rodney Thomas and Shane Doty (who moved from offensive line).
In the secondary, Alabama transfer B.J. Scott has stepped up as a leader. The staff focused their recruiting efforts to find more help there too. Darrius Morrow and Tyrell Pearson both come in and are expected to start. Alonzo Long will suit up next to Scott at free safety. Gabe Loper should get playing time as he is the returning secondary player with the most interceptions last season.
Michel Chapuseaux takes over the placekicking duties with Scott Garber also returning to handle punts.
“We want to be competitive. We want to win every game that we play,” head coach Joey Jones said. “That’s our goal. Now, is that going to be tough to do? Sure. I understand that it will be. The bottom line is I don’t want to cut our kids short in what we’re doing. We’re going to prepare and we’re going to go out there and prepare to win. But we also know there’s a difficult schedule ahead of us and we’ve got to step up each week. I think that our kids probably will play with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder this year. Bottom line, every week that we play we’ve got to prove something. Anybody that we beat will be a big deal. We’re representing a lot of people, not just our football program but the university.”
The schedule will be tough. After UTSA and Nicholls State, the Jags travel to N.C. State again and Mississippi State before returning home for their first-ever Sun Belt Conference game against Troy. Troy, whom most expect will quickly develop into one of the leagues best rivalries, will mark the first part of the season. After their one and only off week, the Jags then visit the SBC defending champion Arkansas State. Then the downhill stretch of FAU (home), ULM (away), FIU (home), North Texas (away), MTSU (home), ULL (away) and their “bowl game” of the season at Hawaii.
If you only count wins and losses as the measuring stick for a season, it could be a difficult season. But if you expand your criteria for this team that will be completing it’s two year FBS transition at the conclusion of this season, you may be surprised.
What You Need To Know About UTSA
The Roadrunner’s head coach, Larry Coker, was hired by UTSA in March of 2009 to start their program. He was voted National Coach of the Year two times and won the 2001 National Championship as the first-year coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Coker has coached 26 first-team All-Americans, 96 first-team All-Conference selections and 63 academic All-Conference honorees.
Texas-San Antonio’s junior quarterback returns to lead the team after taking almost every offensive snap last season. That was his first time playing since his senior year of high school. He completed 172-of-307 passes (56%) for 2,148 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also added 285 yards on the ground with three touchdowns.
Wide receiver Kam Jones, a sophomore, converted from quarterback to play all 10 games, eight starts, for the roadrunners. He accounted for a team-leading 88.1 all-purpose yards per game while leading the team with 39 receptions for 578 yards (14.8 yards per catch) and two touchdowns. He added 22 rushes for 127 yards (5.8 yards per rush) and a touchdown. Jones also averaged 24.4 yards per kickoff return in his seven returns.
Sophomore wide receiver Brandon Freeman was the roadrunners deep threat last season. He was second on the team with 30 catches for 419 yards (14.0 average). He lead the receivers with four touchdowns. Against UC Davis, he caught five passes for 108 yards including a 59-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Actually, he averaged 42 yards per touchdown reception.
The roadrunner defense was very good at converting turnovers into points. They forced 21 turnovers in all, 11 fumble recoveries and 10 interceptions. They converted those turnovers into 15 scores with 12 of them being touchdowns.
Linebacker Steven Kurfehs finished third on the team in tackles with 61 (32 solo, 29 assists) although he missed the final three games due to injury. He moved from safety to linebacker in the 2010 “practice” season. Senior linebacker Brandon Reeves started all 10 games and led the team wtih 69 tackles (27 solo, 42 assists).
Sophomore safety Nic Johnston played ‘Dawg’ in the roadrunners 4-2-5 defensive scheme. He recovered three fumbles while forcing two and intercepted two passes in the teams 10 games. He also finished fourth on the team with 59 tackles (30 solo, 29 assists) with nine of them being for losses.
Sophomore safety Triston Wade forced three fumbles, recovered two and also picked off two. He also had 39 tackles (23 solo, 16 assists) last season.
The roadrunners blocked five kicks last season, three field goals, one punt and an extra point. However, it was a blocked field goal of their own that allowed the Jaguars to defeat UTSA in the Alomodome last season.
Texas-San Antonio had an average attendance of 35,521 last season in their first season. They set a record for a start-up program with 56,743 atendees to their first ever game.
As UTSA makes the move to the FBS ranks, they will be the youngest team in the nation with only six seniors (five scholarship) on their 97 man roster. Additionally only 16 juniors are on the team. The remainder being made up of 42 sophomores and 33 freshmen. Head coach Larry Coker and his staff have filled a vast majority of their team with Texas natives. 87 players are from the state, which makes up 89.7% of the roster.
Fox Sports Southwest will be airing a 30-minute show titled “UTSA Football Insider”. Additionally, they are scheduled to have three games streamed online including the season opener at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The coaching staff has made some changes on the defense by going with speed in their starting defensive ends. COdy rogers played mostly in the ‘Hawk’ and safety positions last season will make the move to add speed at that position.
UTSA will have several freshmen in major starting or backup roles. True freshman Zach Hester will start at right guard. Freshmen will back up the Center, left and right tackle.
The roadrunners use a running back by committee approach and are loaded with veterans in the backfield. They caused problems running the option against the Jags last season as did Cal Poly in the season finale.
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.
Former Jag Into The Olympic Semifinals Of Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles
A former University of South Alabama track and field standout is participating in the London Olympics. Ajoke Odumosu finished third in her heat on Sunday to advance through round one in the Women’s 400-meter hurdles.
Odumosu, a native of Lagos, Nigeria recorded a time of 54.93 which is just shy of her season-best 54.75 to finish third in the second of five heats to qualify for her second semifinal appearance in the Olympic Games. Four years ago she qualified for the semifinals in the same event in Beijing, China in 2008.
Odumuosu participated with the Jaguars from 2004-2008 and was an eight-time SBC individual champion. She recorded three titles each in both the outdoor 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles while also earning two titles in the indoor one-lap sprint.
She was also a three-time NCAA qualifier and was the first Jaguar female to receive All-American honors. She was named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Time Outdoor Team in 2006. She still holds records at South Alabama in the indoor and outdoor 400-meter dash, the 400-meter hurdles and the indoor 4×400-meter relay.
Odumosu is scheduled to run in the third heat on Monday, August 6.
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.”
Jags Appear On Bowling Green Schedule For Home-And-Home Series
Bowling Green announced updates to their future non-conference football schedules which included two dates with the University of South Alabama. They have added a home-and-home series against the Jags on September 11, 2021 in Bowling Green and the return game will be on September 3, 2022 in Mobile.
Between now and 2021 when the Jags are scheduled to play the Falcons, they could potentially meet in a bowl game. The MAC and the Sun Belt conferences have previously signed a deal with the GoDaddy.com bowl, which is played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, for the top team from each conference to square off in a MAC vs Sun Belt match-up.
Future Sun Belt member Texas State has dropped off of the Bowling Green schedule. They previously had a home-and-home series scheduled for September 19, 2015 in Bowling Green and a September 24, 2016 date to travel to San Marcos, Texas. No reason was given for dropping Texas State.
UPDATE: Bowling Green has since taken the reference to the South Alabama schedule off of their site.
Jags Second Practice Cut Short Due To Weather
Quarterback CJ Bennett prepares to take a snap in the light rain at the Jaguar Practice Facility on Friday evening.
The Jaguars hit the field for their second practice of preseason camp but cut it short due to weather. After only an hour on the practice field with light rain, Coach Jones has to call off practice due to lightning too close the practice facility.
Saturday’s practice has been moved up from the previously announced 6:30pm time to an early 7:15am practice. This will mark the first time the Jags will hit the field in shells and allowed light contact.
Their short practice allowed them to work on individual drills for a little over 30 minutes before about 15 minutes of skeleton passing drills. It was during the Skeleton drills that the call was made for the players, coaches and staff to return to the Football Fieldhouse.
First year offensive coordinator Robert Matthews said that, after meetings and walkthroughs prior to practice, the offensive unit would not be affected by the weather and that the installation of the game plan will continue to be on schedule when they take the field on Saturday. The offense is converting to the spread from the multiple power offense that had been run previously.
“We had a lot of good meeting time today, but unfortunately lightning popped and we had to go back inside,” Coach Joey Jones stated. “We can make it up with good meeting time and walk through time, but the bottom line is we didn’t get in much of a practice. But we’ll have a good practice tomorrow morning, I’m looking forward to that. We were going to practice in the morning starting on Monday anyway. There’s a 20-30 percent chance of rain tomorrow morning, but 40-50 percent chance in the afternoon, so we rolled the dice and will go in the morning.”