Jags Improve In Second Scrimmage
Head Coach Joey Jones speaks to his team after the conclusion of the Jaguars first practice of preseason camp.
C.J. Bennett and Brandon Ross lead the Jaguar offense in Saturday morning’s scrimmage for the South Alabama. Ross scored three touchdowns on four carries while Bennett threw for 117 yards and two touchdowns while going 9-of-10 in the scrimmage at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Ross’ first rush of the scrimmage was a four yard gain before crossing the goal line from one yard out on his second carry in a red zone possession for the offense. On the second snap after the mid-scrimmage break, Ross took the ball down the sideline for a 55 yard touchdown. Later in the scrimmage he got one more carry for a two yard touchdown. He racked up 62 of the 141 yards of rushing offense on the day to lead all Jaguars.
Ross is returning from a near one-and-a-half year absence following a knee injury in the 2010 season. Ross was the Jaguars’ leading rusher in 2009 and 2010 at the time of his injury.
Bennett led the first team offense on a 97 yard, 11 play drive for its first possession of the scrimmage. He completed six passes for 80 yards of the drive. He opened with a seven yard pass to T.J. Glover, he later found Bryant Lavender for 13-yards on two occasions and also found Tyrome Bivins for 12 yards to get to midfield. Demetre Baker added a two yard run before Bennett hit Jake Howton for 23 yards. Bennett rounded out the drive with a 25 yard strike to Cameron Broadnax for a touchdown.
Bennett only led the offense one other time. That drive spanned 65 yards in seven plays and it was capped off by a 31 yard touchdown pass to Baker.
The first team defense only surrendered two field goals on the day. The final field goal allowed came on a red zone possession at the 15 yard line.
Ben Giles and Anthony Taylor both lead the team with seven tackles each. Taylor added two pass-breakups to his total as well. Jesse Kelley added six tackles. Giles and Kelley both were credited with 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Randon Carnathan and Enrique Williams recorded three tackles each while Davin Hawkins led the reserves with five tackles.
Offensively, Terrance Timmons rushed five times for 29 yards, Ellis Hill had four rushes for 18 yards and Baker added 17 yards on the ground. Broadnax, Glover and Lavender along with Nathan Sassaman all had two catches each as they combined with four different quarterbacks to tally 181 yards through the air.
Michel Chapuseaux made field goals from 37, 42 and 39 yards. Aleem Sunanon convered the final score of the scrimmage with a 32 yard field goal.
“Offensively and defensively, it was good,” Head coach Joey Jones said about the scrimmage. “Overall I’m sure we’re going to see some things on film that we need to correct. But we’re not quite where we need to be on special teams, and our sideline organization needs to get better. It wasn’t terrible, but there are some things that we have got to shore up. That’s why we do this. I think we will come out next week and do it again, and hopefully we will be perfect at it when we come out on Thursday.”
“We are evaluating our players and will see where we are on the depth chart, and make those decisions this weekend,” Jones continued. “Monday we’ll starting putting the game plan in for Texas-San Antonio, we’ll have a few extra days to getting ready for them.”
“I was monitoring a couple of spots, but we still had to do things against our offense,” said defensive coordinator Bill Clark. “We got our first guys a lot of good work, I thought we tackled well and got to the ball. Our goal was to go 100 percent on our assignments today, we’ll have to see the film, but I think we looked pretty sound. It’s basically what we wanted to see. We’ve still got work to do, but it was a good finish to camp.”
“I thought the defense came out and stopped the run pretty well and I thought they got after it,” coach Jones said about the defense.
Senior Safety B.J. Scott felt that Saturday’s scrimmage was better than the first one of the preseason. “We just had that in the back of our heads and we came out here and just got after it,” he said. “I think we all as a whole feel a little bit more comfortable and focused. It’s all mental at this point. We’re pretty much done beating up on each other.”
“Fundamentally we have improved a lot since camp started,” offensive coordinator Robert Matthews said. “We were able to execute a lot of base plays early today, in the second part of the scrimmage we tried to do some different things that we have been working on. Our guys know what to do, now it is just doing it at the speed and the tempo we expect. I think we are getting closer but are not there yet.”
The Jags returned to the practice field on Sunday so the student-athletes can take Monday off for the first day of fall semester classes.
Defense stands strong on Tuesday
Jordan Means lines up for a field goal attempt in the Jaguars Fan Day scrimmage.
The Jags returned to the practice field after their second two-a-day of the preseason camp. After the offense shined the day before, the defense stepped up their game.
As the preseason routine has gone, practice began with special teams work moving onto individual and group drills. They then worked on inside running game and play-action passing before moving into skeleton passing drills while Offensive and defensive linemen worked on pass protection.
The team took a 10 minute break before returning to team work against the scout team. The offense and defense came together and worked on third-down situations and two-minute drills.
In the third down drills, the defense forced five incompletions, two pass breakups and a sack in 12 plays. The offense gained positive yardage on only four of the 12 plays. Two of the positive yardage plays were quarterback draws by C.J. Bennett and Trey Fetner. Fetner would be key to the other two positive yardage plays with completions to Corey Besteda for 40 yards and a swing pass to Tyrome Bivins for 10 yards.
The defense stood strong again in two-minute drills. The first play saw Damond Smith intercept a pass to kill the drive. The next drive saw the defense force an incompletion. Fetner would follow up with a 21 yard completion to Donte Rome to get to the 29 yard line. Fetner would move the ball between the hashes to set up a 47 yard field goal. The defense would attempt to ice Jordan Means with timeouts, but it would not faze him as he would slip the uprights anyway.
Coach Jones spoke after practice how he liked seeing the defense respond. “You like to see guys who respond to adversity. The defense had a rough day yesterday and it responded (today). That’s what it’s all about – getting out there and fighting. We have a bunch of competitive guys.”
Speaking about how the practice went in general, Coach Jones had the following to say, “It went really well. I thought it was a better overall practice today than it was yesterday. For the end of camp, I think we’re okay. We don’t have anyone with dead legs, we just have some tired guys. But I’m real pleased with where we are.”
The Jags will visit Camp Grace for team-building exercises instead of hitting the practice field on Wednesday. “It helps you overcome your fears,” Coach Jones said. “You have your team helping you, and you find ways to work out a solution out there. It’s really a neat deal, and our kids love it. It’s just another way we can get together and team-build without having to be on a practice field, so I think it’s a valuable tool for us in the middle of camp.”
It also allows some of the banged up players to heal and for everyone to get a little rest from the drills they have been going through for the last two and a half weeks.
They will return to the Jaguar Practice Facility with their final two-a-day practice of preseason camp beginning at 6:15am on Thursday morning.