Fall Football Practice Day Three

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern football worked through day three of fall camp at the football practice fields. Wednesday’s sessions marked the first practice in shoulder pads and also the last of splitting the squad between the two hour morning and afternoon sessions. The Eagles will hold their first full-squad practice Thursday morning.

Head coach Chris Hatcher thought the coaching staff and the players certainly benefited from the split squad practices.

“Oh no question, you get a lot more looks at folks. Not only do you find out who can do some things, you find out some of the guys that may not be quite ready yet to contribute this season so it’s a great evaluation tool. It’s a great learning tool for those players too,” said Hatcher.

The coaching staff progressed each of the first three days installing the offensive and defensive schemes. According to Hatcher Wednesday’s practice session started catching up with some but he saw progress.

“We installed a little bit more today and you can tell that after having day one installation, day two and day three it started catching up, especially with those younger guys,” said Hatcher. “We had good intensity but we’re not in game shape. We are no where near ready to play right now, but we’re getting better each day and that’s all that we need to do at this point in the season.”

Hatcher anticipates a much higher tempo from everyone once the entire squad comes together.

 “I expect the tempo to be a lot faster. Right now we’ve been real cautious taking plenty of breaks because we have very few people out here,” said Hatcher. “I expect us to have a little better tempo and I expect our guys to know a little bit more tomorrow than they did today.”

Thursday and Friday’s session will run from 9:15-11:30 a.m. Friday is also the first day the team can practice in full pads. Saturday’s schedule includes three different practice times: 8-10 a.m., 2:15-4:15 and 7:15-8:15 p.m. The first two will be in full pads while the night session will be in shells.

TRYING TO BEAT THE HEAT: During Wednesday’s two hour afternoon session there was no escaping the heat index. Temperatures were nearing record highs and according to Assistant Athletics Director/Head Athletic Trainer Brant Berkstresser, Wednesday’s heat index during practice ranked among the top five since he’s been here.

“It (the heat index) would certainly rank among the top five. I remember last year we had one session that hit 132 and there was a 123 two years ago,” said Berkstresser.

Not only were there potential record highs to deal with, the Eagles also spent Wednesday’s practice wearing shoulder pads for the first time. The athletic training staff constantly keeps a close eye on all the players during practice. Berkstresser oversees a training staff that consists of recently hired assistant Nate Miker, 2-3 graduate assistants and 6-8 student assistant trainers strategically positioned around the practice facility.

“It’s a big adjustment (to shoulder pads). With the humidity as it is you don’t sweat as much, and now you have the shoulder pads on there which allows even less sweat to evaporate. There’s a higher risk of heat illness anytime you wear the pads. It was noticeably warmer to them and I thought they did a good job of pushing through the practice.”

Berkstresser and his staff have a mandatory weigh in before and after practice to track weight loss. If a player loses a certain percentage of his body weight and does not gain it back they are closely monitored and pulled from drills if need be.

“We haven’t had any issues of that at all this year. All of our players are doing a very good job of hydrating themselves and maintaining a proper diet,” said Berkstresser.

MEET THE EAGLES SET FOR AUGUST 18: The Georgia Southern Football program will be sponsoring a Little Eagles camp and a Meet the Eagles Day on Saturday, August 18.  The Little Eagles camp will take place from 9-11 a.m. at Paulson Stadium.  Registration will be from 9-9:30 a.m.  As part of the camp festivities the Little Eagles will run on the field with the banner, music, PA, and the video scoreboard.  Meet the Eagles Day will begin at 11 a.m. in the Bishop Field House... In the Bishop Field House, schedule cards and the 2007 Football posters will be available.  In addition, GUS and the entire Georgia Southern Football team and coaching staff will sign autographs.  Cheerleaders will also be on hand signing autographs, meeting and greeting the fans and selling bobblehead dolls.  The Athletics Marketing Staff will hand out Chick-Fil-A coupons, sandwiches to the kids and the Chick-Fil-A cow will be in attendance.  Season tickets, jerseys and football media guides will be on sale.  Southern Boosters information packets will also be available.

Category: Football

Published on Wednesday, 08 August 2007 00:24