2013 South Alabama Spring Football Analysis

2013 South Alabama Jaguars - Head Coach: Joey Jones

South Alabama Jaguars

2013 Schedule
8/29 Southern Utah
9/7 at Tulane
9/14 WKU
9/21 OPEN DATE
9/28 at Tennessee
10/5 at Troy
10/12 OPEN DATE
10/19 Kent State
10/26 at Texas State
11/2 Arkansas State
11/9 OPEN DATE
11/16 at Navy
11/23 ULM
11/30 at Georgia State
12/7 Louisiana

Why To Be Excited 2012 was a season of building up and preparing with several young players thrown to the wolves. The hope is for a payoff with 18 starters returning including nine on an offense that started to find some nice things that worked as the season went on. Quarterback Ross Metheny and all the top skill players return. The diminutive Jereme Jones should be one of the Sun Belt’s most dangerous weapons, and Bryan Lavender should come up with a strong season at flanker.

Why To Be Grouchy While there’s a ton of experience returning on offense, the line has to replace two starters in veteran center Trey Clark and versatile left guard Tremain Smith. While the defense is also full of experience, it loses tackling machine linebacker Jake Johnson and third leading tackler, safety B.J. Scott. One of the other big positives, kicker Michael Chapuseaux, is also gone after hitting 20-of-27 field goals and constantly bailing out a pedestrian offense.

What Needs Working On The team has to get tighter and eliminate the big mistakes. Penalties weren’t a consistent problem, but there was a stretch when the Jaguars couldn’t stop getting flagged getting nailed a whopping 28 times in a two game stretch against Troy and Arkansas State and being penalized 11 times against North Texas and Middle Tennessee. Losing fumbles was a huge problem, failing to jump on 17 of the 22 put on the ground to go along with 16 picks, going just four games without losing multiple turnovers.

Non-Conference Games: Southern Utah, at Tulane, at Tennessee, Kent State, at Navy
Realistic Best Case Record: 5-7
Worst Case Record: 0-12
Likely Finish: 2-10
Pre-Preseason Projected Wins: Southern Utah, at Georgia State
Pre-Preseason Projected Losses: at Tulane, WKU, at Tennessee, at Troy, Kent State, at Texas State, Arkansas State, at Navy, ULM, Louisiana

Schedule Analysis: The Jaguars will have to keep trying to navigate their way through the FBS waters against a tougher schedule. Southern Utah needs to be a must win to take advantage of the opening home date before going to Tulane. Starting out Sun Belt play against WKU is at home before getting a week off to get ready for the fun of going to Tennessee. There isn’t a home game from mid-September until the November 19th game against Kent State, and there’s another off week in November before going to Navy. Closing out with three conference home games in the final four, and with the road date coming against a bad Georgia State, should help.

Team Concerns For 2013: The running game has to be far more effective after dying down the stretch - 18 yards against Hawaii is inexcusable - and coming up with just four rushing scores over the final six games. Turnovers were a huge problem with 33 giveaways that destroyed offensive momentum time and again, but the defense didn't exactly bail the O out of too many jams. The pass rush went bye-bye outside of the six sacks generated against Nicholls State.

The 2013 Class Is Heavy On ... Skill players. Joey Jones and his staff didn't ignore the defense, coming up with linebacker Jalen Wells and JUCO transfer Desmond Lavelle for the middle, but the stars on on offense. Noah Armstrong will one day be the team's top offensive tackle, while Kaleb Blanchard might be too good to keep out of the running back mix right away. It's a deep stable of receivers led by Dejon Funderburk and JUCO transfer ShaVarez Smith, while quarterback Brett Sheehan was a great get with tremendous upside.

2012 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 113. That Class Was Heavy On ... Offensive line. The Jaguars are going to have to build from the inside out with the line depth gone thanks to graduation. This year’s class will go big on guard and center, while the secondary will get some instant help from the JUCO ranks. Corner options are going to be a must, and this class should bring them.