Tuesday’s Two-a-Day Sees Good Competition in Morning
8/7/2013 2:44:00 AM | Football
PHOTO GALLERY -- August 6, 2013
STATESBORO, Ga. – Eagles aren't ducks, so when a torrential rainstorm swept through Statesboro with 2.8 inches of rain in about two hours Tuesday evening, the Eagles soared indoors for a 75-minute walkthrough. Georgia Southern had a flex period and then broke into offensive and defensive squads and talked through plays and schemes for its second practice of the two-a-day. The Eagles had 16 periods of practice in full pads earlier in the day.
The spirited morning session featured good competition during the interaction, with both good plays on both sides of the ball and enough missed assignments to draw note. Georgia Southern Head Coach Jeff Monken reminded his team in his post-practice talk that the expectations are higher at Georgia Southern and the standards must be as well. Looking forward to the first two-a-day of the 2013 preseason, the Eagles had to go indoors to the University's Recreation Activity Center where the reps took on more of the tempo of a walkthrough rather than a practice.
"We weren't out there as long as we had been for a one-a-day practice, we cut it back and we did a little less interaction than the day before, but I thought there was good competition and good work," said Georgia Southern Head Coach Jeff Monken. "Some guys are improving and we're seeing some good things out of some of the young kids and we'll just keep getting better."
The afternoon downpour, which started just a short time before the scheduled start of the second practice, changed up the team itinerary with the delay. Additional meetings and then dinner would put the Eagles back on the practice fields at 7 p.m. Soggy fields and continued rain brought out the yellow buses for a trip to the RAC with the offense in one of the multi-court spaces and the defense in the other.
"We weren't able to be outside and spread out on a whole field where you can simulate a game environment, the experience isn't the same in a gymnasium," Monken said about moving practice indoors. "In the gym you can slow it down, though, and probably the young kids feel a little more at ease about learning. We also don't get the pounding on the legs and maybe that keeps us fresher as we get into this stretch, starting Thursday, we have eight practices in five days, so that's going to be a pretty tough stretch."
Almost all the Eagles will have the day away from the practice fields on Wednesday with meetings and lifting at Iron Works in the morning and time to themselves in the afternoon. Georgia Southern linebackers Edwin Jackson and Kyle Oehlbeck will be in uniform briefly for a photoshoot for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's preseason football section. The Georgia Southern coaches will meet during the afternoon as a whole group and as offensive and defensive staffs before a team and positing meetings in the evening.
The Eagles are scheduled for a two practices Thursday with the first practice in full pads beginning with stretch at 9:15 and afternoon practice in shells beginning at 4:45 p.m. Both practices are scheduled for the fields on the banks of the newly expanded "Beautiful Eagle Creek," contingent, of course, upon weather.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS. Fans can follow Coach Jeff Monken on his official twitter account, @CoachJeffMonken.
