One quality of a college spring football game is that it’s more practice than anything else which means weaknesses are exposed.
On Saturday, the Southern football team showed it has plenty to keep it busy through the summer and preseason practice going into the 2024 season.
But that’s OK, it was also a little bit of a celebration of the end of the 15-workout session for the Jaguars and first-year coach Terrence Graves.
“It was a beautiful day for football,” said Graves with his ever-present, glowing smile. “The guys had a lot of energy like they had all spring. Guys made some plays, it was good to see them make plays. Of course, there were some mistakes, but we’re going to correct those. It was 15 days, I don’t expect them to be picture perfect. I really liked to see those guys get after one another, compete and we took care of one another.”
After a slow start, the quarterbacks showed improvement. Noah Bodden still seems like the leader, even though Graves wouldn’t even commit to a frontrunner. Redshirt freshmen Jalen Woods and Czavian Teasett didn’t look too far behind Bodden. There is a possibility the Jaguars will go into the portal for an experienced backup, but Graves wouldn’t commit to that either.
“We’ll sit down and talk with Coach (offensive coordinator Mark) Frederick and the offensive guys,” Graves said. “Whatever he says, that’s what we’ll go with. If he feels like that’s what we need, we’ll go with it. If not, we won’t.”
The offense included zone read keepers by all three quarterbacks. Teasett looked like the best runner of the three.
The wide receivers made some nice catches and the offense employed tight ends significantly. Cameron Jefferson led the way with six catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. Cameron Jackson caught five passes for 77 yards and a score and Damien Knighten had three catches for 106 yards, including a 79-yard TD.
Most interesting was the tight end results. Junior Dupree Fuller caught five passes for 54 yards and Jermaine Minor had three for 55 as the play calling went to them on third downs often. Running back Tyce Fusilier caught five passes for 46 yards. All statistics are unofficial.
“We’ve got to learn how to start fast,” wide receiver Chandler Whitfield said. “Any given game anything can be thrown at you. The biggest thing, the thing I’m proud of, is we adjusted and got right. We had trials and tribulations at the beginning but capitalized at the end.
On defense, the secondary came up with three interceptions, although one was nullified by a penalty, and batted several passes. The tackling seemed better, and the pass rush stood out early, which may have been attributable to sketchy offensive line play.
Jelani Davis had three sacks, Zac Yassine and Markeis Batiste one each. Southern was shorthanded on the offensive line all spring and unofficially committed nine false starts, plus a delay of game.
“We did good, came out with a lot of energy,” said end Darrius Harry. “Some things we need to go back to the drawing board and fix. We did good for the most part, flew to the ball. We have some new guys. We’re young and ready.”
Graves said the pass rush was without All-SWAC end Ckelby Givens, who sat out the spring to recover from shoulder surgery.
“At times (pass rush) was as good as it looked, sometimes it was a little slanted because we had one young guy out there,” Graves said. “For the most part they did a good job running the games, guys beat guys. We’ve got some guys that can get after the quarterback. I don’t want to attribute it just to youth. They did it when we had some first-team guys in there.”
Graves had high praise for Daylen Wilson, a walk-on transfer from Wyoming. He had two interceptions and has surprised even the coaches throughout the spring.
“He was one of those walk-ons I was impressed with,” Graves said. “He’s been a great surprise. He’s locked in and focused, a competitor and athletic.
Receivers’ stats
Other wide receiver stats: Chandler Whitfield, four for 43 yards, one TD; Tyler Kirkwood, one for 25 yards; Jordan Dupre, three for 78 yards, one TD; Darren Morris, three for 38 yards and Khalil Harris, one for 12 yards.
Running backs stats
Kobe Dillon started and ran five times for 18 yards, including a 10-yard run on his first carry. CJ Russell ran 6 times for 35 yards and Fusilier 8 times for 18 yards.