Wednesday, Aug. 19
On Wednesday afternoon, Georgia Southern football held its second afternoon practice of the 2020 camp schedule. The Eagles practiced in full pads, running through a two hour practice. Wednesday's practice began with the usual pre practice walk-through, before getting into stretching.
As practiced neared the final 45 minutes, coaches began to make their way to the press box for a situational part of practice. The offense and the defense competed from the plus 45 going toward the Ted Smith end zone. The Wednesday practice ended with the special team unit kicking field goals and going through their routines.
The Eagles will continue fall camp 2020 tomorrow afternoon with a walkthrough at Paulson Stadium.
Tuesday, Aug. 18
With classes beginning this week, Georgia Southern football practiced in the evening at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles practiced in shells for the first time this week after having Monday off with classes starting.
The first practice after moving to the afternoon schedule was delayed for nearly two hours due to weather in the area. The Eagles participated in an hour and half practice under the new lights at Paulson Stadium.
Practice began at 6:30 on the dot with a Flex period to warm up. The team continued to go through individual periods before heading into offensive and defensive emphasis both on the ground and through the air. The first practice of school starting ended with two full periods of offense versus defense work.
Georgia Southern football will continue camp 2020 tomorrow afternoon.
Saturday, Aug. 15
Georgia Southern held its first football scrimmage of the fall. For a full recap,
click here.
Friday, Aug. 14
On Friday morning, Georgia Southern football wrapped up the first week of camp with an abbreviated practice at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles went back to a spiders look so that they could continue to acclimate the players bodies to full contact scrimmages.
Today our Camp Confidential crew takes you into the quarterbacks room, where the Eagles return two guys who saw action last season. Alongside Shai Werts and Justin Tomlin, the Eagles welcomed in two transfer quarterbacks, Miller Mosley and Will Lovett Jr. Joining those two newcomers are freshman Sam Kenerson, Connor Cigelski and Alex Bowen.
In 2019, Werts carried the ball 171 times, gaining 733 yards. He averaged 66.64 yards per game and scored five times.
Justin Tomlin added two scores to his credit, as well as carried the ball 30 times for 196 yards. Through the air in 2019, Werts and Tomlin combined for 79 completions on 153 attempts. The two signal callers totaled 961 yards on the season and Werts added nine scores to the stat line.
"All seven guys have had really good energy throughout camp," said Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks coach
Bob DeBesse. "Whether they have been on the sidelines or in the huddle each guy has done a really nice job. Shai has taken his leadership role to another level. I love the fact that he isn't just taking charge of the quarterback unit, but also taking charge of some other units as well. You throw in guys like
Wesley Kennedy III,
J.D. King and
Drew Wilson, it makes you see how player led this offensive group is."
Before breaking practice down coach Lunsford called
Kierron Smith and
Drew Wilson out for a Lineman Punt Catching Challenge. Both guys gave valiant efforts, but neither could finish the catch.
Thursday, Aug. 13
Georgia Southern football returned to the field this morning, after a hard earned and well deserved day off for the guys. For the first time during camp, the Eagles broke out full pads and competed in another hour and a half practice, which wrapped up with a short full contact period to end the day.
Practice began with a typical ball security drill, before going through a walkthrough period and individual position group installs. In one-on-one drills the competition began to heat up, as both the offense and defense made plays and brought the energy.
"It was great," said head coach
Chad Lunsford. "The guys have been itching to get in full pads. We actually could have been in full pads on Tuesday, but we decided to go with a spiders look to get one more day of acclamation just to see where our guys bodies are. To get out here in pads today was very exciting and the guys were ready to compete. It was a very competitive, but controlled day. We went tag off, thud and live. The guys really enjoyed all three of those types of drills. Tomorrow we will go spiders once again and then head into our first scrimmage on Saturday."
The Eagles will be back in action tomorrow morning. Camp Confidential will take you into the quarterbacks room for our third featured group of camp.
Tuesday, Aug. 11
Georgia Southern football continued camp on Tuesday morning with their usual routine in Paulson Stadium. Today our Camp Confidential story takes you into the outside linebackers room and gives you everything you need to know about the Eagles edge threats this season.
The Eagles' outside linebacker core, led by OLBs coach
Jeremy Rowell, posted a 79 total tackles in 2019. The three returners of
Quin Williams,
Zyon McGee and
Randy Wade Jr., totaled 6.5 sacks and 13.0 tackles for loss. The trio also had four quarterback hurries, forced two fumbles and recovered two.
Alongside the 2019 returners, the outside linebackers room adds Benz Jose,
Marques Watson-Trent,
Jalen Jackson,
Will Riggins and
Thomas Cook.
"
Randy Wade Jr. is a hidden gem," said head coach
Chad Lunsford. "He has got a lot of attention from the NFL and he is a guy that has consistently played for us and has done a great job. I am really excited for
Quin Williams to get some more action this season. He has really come into the new role and has done well. We have a young guy in
Jalen Jackson, from Athens who has shown that he can play as a freshman. Obviously we lost
Jay Bowdry and
Lane Ecton at the anchor position, but with how our guys have bought in and continued to compete it makes you real excited."
The Eagles will take Wednesday off before hitting the field Thursday morning in full pads for the first time.
Monday, Aug. 10
On Monday morning, Georgia Southern continued football camp with another hour and a half practice at Allen E. Paulson Stadium. After a short Sunday walkthrough, the Eagles donned shells for the first time this camp.
As camp rolls along, the safety and precautions continue to get stronger. The Eagles have been taking every day seriously and have implemented new habits and techniques into practice. Balls have been sprayed down after each usage, team huddles have been socially distanced after practice, media interviews are socially distanced and players are getting additional hydration breaks to make sure their bodies are in their best shape. And then those hydration stations are sanitized!
"I thought today was a really good day, being our first in helmets and shoulder pads. We had the first two days in helmets like we are required and then took yesterday off and had a walkthrough last night," head coach Chad Lunsford said. "We wanted to give the guys a rest and make sure their bodies felt good when we put the pads on today. I thought they came out with great energy today. There are so many rumors and things going around right now that could easily mess with their minds, but they flipped the switch today and went to work."
Since OTA's began a few weeks ago, the Eagles have continued to follow protocols set in place. Players and staff are required to get their temperature checked before entering the building. Masks are required to be worn at all times during meetings and walking around the building. Coach Lunsford and staff have also taken the typical team meeting in one room and have broken the guys into position groups before starting a zoom call between all the areas. Per NCAA policies, players and staff members will have to have weekly COVID-19 tests now that preseason has begun and the first one of those is scheduled toi be administered this week.
"I feel very strongly that we are taking care of our guys and we are doing the right thing by them," Lunsford said. "The vibe on our team right now is 'let's go do this.' We have been very open with our guys and fully support each of their decisions, but at this point everyone has bought in and has been willing to put in the work."
Tomorrow the Eagles will be back on the field for day four of camp. Camp Confidential will take you behind the scenes with the outside linebackers.
In the meantime, take a listen to some of the post-practice interviews from Coach Lunsford.
Saturday, Aug. 8
Georgia Southern football continued camp on Saturday morning with another hour and a half practice. Today our Camp Confidential story takes you into the running backs room and gives you everything you need to know about the 2020 Georgia Southern backfield.
The Eagles' backfield, led by associate head coach and running backs coach
Chris Foster, helped the Eagles rush for nearly 3,700 yards in 2019. GS averaged 4.9 yards per attempt and rushed for 252.7 yards per game.
In 2020, the Eagles currently have 10 running backs on the roster. Led by seniors
Wesley Kennedy III and
J.D. King, the Georgia Southern running backs room is loaded. The other eight Eagles that fill out a socially distant, but packed running back room are:
Logan Wright,
Gerald Green,
Matt LaRoche,
Jalen White,
AJ Brown,
Aaron Yarbrough and
Jordan Pearson.
The GS running backs accounted for 22 of the 29 touchdowns the blue and white scored last season. Kennedy III averaged 91.56 yards per game and had a season long score of 71 yards.
J.D. King led the team in carries in 2019, producing 820 yards and finding pay dirt eight times.
GSEagles got the chance to follow the running backs around the first day of camp. Be sure to check out this Hard Knocks-style video released.
Saturday's practice also featured a guest medical professional who went over the in-depth testing procedures that are in place for all Georgia Southern student-athletes as the seasons begin. He reiterated that GS has protocols and procedures in place that are on par with Power 5 Conferences and that the school is doing whatever it can to keep them safe on and off the field. The football team will begin its mandatory COVID-19 testing next week and must be tested each week leading up to game week. All student-athletes will have to be tested 72 hours prior to competition per NCAA mandates and the Athletics Department has a company in place to administer these tests.
Friday, Aug. 7
Eagle Nation, welcome to another edition of Georgia Southern Football Camp Confidential. Over the next few weeks we will take you behind the scenes as the Eagles begin a very different 2020 Fall Camp.
During camp, GS Athletics will continue to update this page with new features, photos and videos from life inside the Georgia Southern Football Bubble. On Thursday, the team checked into the Ted Smith Family Football Operations Center and began their Zoom meetings and socially distant team meetings.
The team convened Friday morning for breakfast, taping and meetings starting bright and early at 6 a.m. At 7:40 a.m. inside linebacker
Connor Lawson became the first Eagle to emerge from the locker room outside and was joined shortly thereafter by nose tackle
Robb Bozeman for the official the 2020 Fall Camp. The first official practice since the March shutdown, featured 128 players on the Eagles' roster.
With coaches and staff wearing masks and footballs being sanitized after every play, the GS football team took all precautions to create a safe and healthy environment. To keep players hydrated, strength & conditioning staff members handed out mini Powerade bottles at three different points during practice.
"This has been an abnormal offseason training," Head coach Chad Lunsford said following the first practice of 2020. "We didn't want to do too much with them, so we kept practice at an hour and a half. We were very smart about water and Powerade breaks, while asking enough of what their bodies can do."
The 128 players went through drills beginning with ball security and finished with a modified 7-on-7 period. Practice lasted 90 minutes on a hot summer day to kick off the 2020 camp schedule. Following practice, Shai Werts, Rashad Byrd, Raymond Johnson III and Coach Chad Lunsford all met the media to discuss life in the pandemic, safety precautions and concerns and how it felt to be back. The media were kept at a safe distance in an effort to keep everyone on the team safe.
"It was exciting to get out here the first day in helmets. Two weeks ago during OTA's was the first time we were able to get together since March 12th," Said Coach Lunsford. "There was a lot of excitement, energy and enthusiasm as they took the field today. You can tell the team is hungry and that they want it, but we are going to be smart with them."
The 2020 Preseason Camp will continue throughout the day with position meetings and meals. The team will be back to work Saturday morning for day two and continue through the week before classes start on the 17th.
