Coaches Evaluating Eagles During Spring Practice

STATESBORO, Ga. - Calling it "spring" football practice would be a little deceiving as the weather in Statesboro this morning didn't reflect the forecast. As the weather improved with time, and with 11 days of practice remaining for the Eagles, the team will continue to see improvement on the field as well.

Following today's practice, which featured drills and a large chunk of time spent in team sessions, Georgia Southern Head Coach Jeff Monken told the team he wanted to make sure they were playing "100 miles per hour from snap to whistle." Monken said there would be a lot of tape from today's practice, giving both coaches and players a lot to watch and learn from.

"First, I thought the defense did a great job -- the first defense -- and [today] we set it up in a scrimmage-type situation for these team periods and used the chains so we could see the drives," Monken said. "They stopped them and got them off the field, which is important. [They] played with some energy and enthusiasm, which I liked. When you are stopping them and you are having success, you are going to get excited and they did, and they kind of fed off that. They did a great job."

The coaching staff looked at different combinations of players and groups throughout the course of the practice, swapping in players into different lineups and seeing the competition between the different groups. Monken and his coaching staff continue to emphasize effort - and fundamentals - with both the offense and defense. Evaluation of practice tape and additional team-on-team next week will help the coaches determine where some players will fit in and if they might be able to help the Eagles in another position.

"We don't have a depth chart yet really set in stone," Monken said. "So we wanted to give as many of those quarterbacks as we think have a chance an opportunity to go with the best offensive line, and the running backs as well, so we can start to put them in order and get a depth chart developed. When we get into next week and when we have a full scrimmage, and not this practice-type, slowed-down set-up, we'll have an idea of the ones, the twos, the threes and everybody else. We'll have that established by next Saturday."

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Georgia Southern will follow the same schedule as its first week of practice, going Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 3:45 in the afternoon on the banks of "beautiful Eagle Creek." The Eagles will be in full gear for those sessions. Next Saturday will be the first of the three scrimmages, with the Blue-White Spring game serving as the third and final scrimmage at 1 p.m. on April 17th.

Category: Football

Published on Saturday, 27 March 2010 20:09