Addition of New Drills Engages Players During Practice
4/8/2014 10:27:00 PM | Football
“Eagle Battles” introduced to routine
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Post-practice interview with Coach Willie Fritz -- 4-8-2014 (GS All-Access Subscription required)
New drills added to practice routine -- 4-8-2014 (GS All-Access Subscription required)
STATESBORO, Ga. – To the casual observer, some of Georgia Southern's Football practice may start to look a little bit the same by the time Day 10 rolls around. While improvement continues day-by-day as the Eagles get reps in the standard drills, pass skelly and team work, "Eagle Battles" were introduced Tuesday during the 27-period practice to "spice things up a bit."
"We want to get good on good and have guys paired up against each other and have good healthy competition," said Georgia Southern Head Coach Willie Fritz. "We have the goal line tackle drill, it's a high impact, collision-type drill and we are also doing a leverage drill with our offensive and defensive linemen."
For the goal line drill, two step-over bags are used to define a lane with an offensive player propelling themselves through the lane to attempt to cross the "goal line" with the defender making every effort to stop them. In the leverage drill, one offensive and one defensive lineman square off against each other in what closely resembles a giant hula hoop.
"It's (leverage drill) a great drill for enthusiasm and also to get guys to go out and compete and not be scared to compete in front of their peers, which is important," Fritz said. "Sometimes guys don't do a very good job of that. We'll do that two or three times in the latter part of spring ball just to spice things up a little bit."
Coach Fritz and the Eagle coaching staff evaluated the film from Saturday's first scrimmage this weekend for their first complete look at the team as well as position by position.
"It really was interesting to see – sometimes you watch the game live and you think you think one thing, and then you watch the videotape and evaluate it, and something else is really happening out there," said Georgia Southern Head Football Coach Willie Fritz. "I was very impressed with the effort that we played with for the first scrimmage and we kind of made a working depth chart that will help us over the next few practices."
With five practices remaining, including Saturday's Blue-White Spring Game at 12 noon at Paulson Stadium, there are still a number of concepts Coach Fritz wants to touch on that have not yet been covered this spring.
"We are going to do a lot of work on the kicking game, kickoff, kickoff return, drill work, so when our guys come into camp in the fall, we have an idea of what we are doing in every single phase of the kicking game."
THEY CAN, WE CAN: The wives of the Georgia Southern Football Coaching staff kicked off the efforts for this Saturday's Blue-White canned food drive by donating more than 200 items for the Statesboro Food Bank. Each brought at least one item corresponding to the number of players in their husband's position group with Mrs. Fritz matching with an item for the total number of Eagles on the roster.
Admission to the Blue-White Spring Football game on Saturday, April 12th, is free, but Georgia Southern Athletics is asking Eagle Nation to bring canned food items to help stock the shelves of the Statesboro Food Bank. In addition to canned items, boxed macaroni and cheese and cereal with a long shelf life are other non-perishable items that are also welcome.
The canned goods may be dropped off at the Gate 4 entrance to Paulson Stadium prior to the game. Gates open at 11 a.m. prior to the 12 p.m. kickoff.
TAILGATE COOK-OFF ENTRY SUBMISSION EXTENDED: The entry deadline for the Tailgate Cook-off has been extended to Wednesday, April 9th at 5 p.m. The grand prize winner, who receives four tickets to the Eagles' game vs. Georgia Tech in Atlanta with hotel stay, will be determined by a vote of the fans who purchase a $2 wristband to samplethe contestants' fare. For more information, visit: http://www.gseagles.com/news/
RADIO AFFILIATES: The following Georgia Southern Radio Network affiliates will carry the audio feed of this weekend's Blue-White Spring Game: 103.7 "The Boomer" WBMZ-Metter, 106.5 FM WZBX-Sylvania, 102.3 FM WSIZ-Fitzgerald and 1370 AM WLOP-Jseup. The audio feed will be available to GS All-Access Subscribers at GSEagles.com/showcase.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channelsfacebook.com/GSAthletics, twit
Season tickets for the Eagles' first campaign in FBS are available by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS. The renewal period for current season ticket holders extends through Friday, April 18th.
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