Southern offense may look different with coaching moves
With freshly minted co-offensive coordinators and a new play-caller, there’s really no telling how different — if at all — Southern’s offense will look Saturday against Jackson State.
And coming off a shutout loss to Mississippi Valley State, that might just be the best thing the Jaguars’ offense has going for it.
Stump Mitchell’s dismissal on Friday left SU without its de facto offensive coordinator. And on Monday, interim coach Dawson Odums said quarterbacks coach Chad Germany and running backs coach Elvis Joseph would share the title, with Germany responsible for calling plays.
The idea that Germany, the former Capitol High coach, could shake things up this weekend is making preparation week a little more hectic for the Tigers, who are left wondering how much they can rely on the SU game film they have.
“Southern is definitely a team that we don’t know much about right now since the mis-happenings that happened down there.” JSU coach Rick Comegy said. “We have to prepare for everything from a defensive standpoint.”
“We know they’re a set team, a pro-style team, but we don’t know what to expect,” Comegy added. “We’ll just settle into the base of what we play, and it should fit with some of the things that they do. We don’t know how they’ll come at us with a new coordinator at this point.”
Southern’s offense didn’t look drastically different Monday, save for a few more option plays, an up-tempo approach and a few personnel changes — such as long-snapper Justin Williams seeing action as a first-team receiver.
Despite a rough outing Thursday against the Delta Devils when he threw an interception and fumbled, quarterback Dray Joseph resumed his usual role as the starter, and Odums said he doesn’t plan to deviate from Mitchell’s previous plan of sticking with one quarterback.
“I think Dray is playing real good football,” Odums said. “When you look at the film, he makes great decisions. I don’t have a problem with Dray being our starting quarterback. I think we’re looking at the overall issues of the offense and trying to correct those. And we’re just trying to get better. There is no quarterback situation here at Southern University.”
Injuries
Monday brought a welcome sight to the practice field, as Levi Jackson was back in his usual role as starting strong safety. Jackson missed last week’s game after suffering a bone bruise in the opener at New Mexico.
Jamaal Martin, who started in Jackson’s place and picked up a knee injury Thursday, watched from the sidelines. Martin said after undergoing an MRI, doctors told him his injury may be to the medial collateral ligament, but he was to find out more information Monday night.
Freshman receiver Willie Quinn is still waiting on clearance from the NCAA, which has prevented him from taking the field thus far because paperwork issues.