Junior safety Matt Dobson dives, and hits the ground, on a pass breakup
Fritz Expects Eagles to Be Fast, Furious, and Physical, but Stay on Their Feet
8/4/2014 8:38:00 PM | Football
Georgia Southern holds first two-a-day practice Tuesday, first scrimmage Saturday
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STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern Coach Willie Fritz can quote some key statistics as he heads into his 30th overall year of coaching 22nd year as a head football coach. He's been around long enough to balance empirical data and common sense. A big proponent of NFL-style practices, the Eagles' coach is adamant that his student-athletes stay on their feet and off the ground, citing that body-to-ground contact accounts for nearly two-thirds of football injuries.
It's a philosophy intended to keep players healthy, and ready, for action on game day, rather than getting banged up during the week's practices.
Monday's 27 periods of practice began with special teams with individual position drills and pass skelly before closing out the morning with five periods of team work. It's during these periods where Fritz is watchful of the intense nature of a play ending with an Eagle, or two, or three on the ground. He applauds the effort, as the Eagles are going playing to the second whistle, but wants to see the control from his team as well.
CONCUSSION RESEARCH CONTINUES
Georgia Southern University received a $385,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study concussions in 2011, and with additional funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the research continues. As part of the research project, more than 30 Eagle Football student-athletes are wearing Riddell helmets equipped with the Helmet Impact Telemetry System (HITS) system this preseason after becoming the first college in the state of Georgia to utilize the system in 2013.
Six sensors located inside the helmet, at the crown, measure the severity of a hit to the head, with measurements transmitted in near-real time from the sensors to a laptop computer located on the sidelines of all practices and games.
A typical impact in football lasts about 15 milliseconds and if a hit reaches a certain threshold, a pager worn by the head athletics trainer and graduate assistant trainer receives a notification. Each impact will also be time stamped and can be synchronized with practice video so coaches, athletics trainers and researchers can better evaluate the impacts.
EAGLES' FIRST TWO-A-DAY TUESDAY
Georgia Southern will have three two-a-day practice dates, Tuesday, August. 5th, Thursday, August 7th and Tuesday, August 11th with the Eagles going in shoulderpads, shorts and helmets for the first session at their normal 8 a.m. start time and shorts and helmets only for the second session. For the 7:45 p.m. night session, the team moves under the lights at Paulson Stadium.
SCRIMMAGING ON SATURDAY
The first scrimmage of the 2014 preseason will take place on Saturday, August 9th at Paulson Stadium, which will also be the first time the Eagles will don full pads this preseason.
40 UNDER 40 LIST INCLUDES CONNECTIONS TO ATHLETICS
Several members of Georgia Southern Alumni Association's 40 Under 40 list for 2014 have ties to the Eagle Athletics Department. The list of honorees, released last week, recognizes young alumni who are leading the way in business, leadership, community, educational and/or philanthropic endeavors. Of the University's more than 75,000 living alumni, more than 30,000 are under 40 years of age. The individuals selected for this honor represent the excellence of the University's young alumni and demonstrate the positive contributions and remarkable achievements for which Georgia Southern graduates are known. They will be recognized for their contributions later this fall.
The list includes five University alumni who either competed for Georgia Southern or worked closely with the program:
Lindsay Grossman Blom (women's soccer student-athlete)
Mario Cruz (student athletic trainer)
John Fulford (project manager, Paulson Stadium expansion)
Dennette Abbott Thornton (student equipment manager)
Justin Wright (Eagle Offensive Lineman)
SEASON TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Season tickets for the Eagles' first campaign in the Sun Belt Conference and FBS are on sale online now at GSEagles.com/fbtix and weekdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS. The five-game home campaign opens September 6th vs. Savannah State with two historic Thursday night games on ESPNU September 25th vs. Appalachian State and October 30th vs. Troy. Single game tickets for home games go on sale to the general public August 15th.
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, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA.
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