Southern head coach Terrence Graves speaks with his players on the field during practice, Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at A.W. Mumford Stadium on the campus of Southern University.
Southern football capped six consecutive practices with a 50-plus play scrimmage on Saturday, taking the first big step in preseason camp. It was first-year coach Terrence Graves’ first chance to get a look at a lot of the new players under game conditions that he brought in to the program. He especially wanted to see about his team's discipline, asking referees working the scrimmage to call it “tight.
” “It went well; I liked the way we moved the ball offensively,” Graves said after grading the tape on Sunday. “The offensive line did a good job of protection and blocking. We had no holding calls or false starts.
We had some penalties we’ve got to clean up, but they were us being aggressive. The penalties can be corrected. “I wanted the officials to call it really, really tight.
Some of the penalties may have been borderline, but that will help us down the line.” There was no news on the quarterback contest between junior Noah Bodden and redshirt freshmen Czavian Teasett and Jalen Woods. Graves praised their ability to run the offense as they took turns with both units.
“The quarterbacks did a good job of executing the offense,” Graves said. “They had a few mistakes on assignments here and there. We didn’t have any interceptions, that was great.
When they got in the game, they led.” Bodden threw a pair of TD passes while Teasett threw for one and ran for another. Wide receiver Jordan Dupre caught two scoring passes and Cameron Jackson one.
Senior running back Kendric Rhymes scored a rushing touchdown. Graves liked the aggressiveness of his defense, which he said attacked the offense. Linebacker Derrick Williams had a good day that included a forced fumble that he recovered.
The front seven provided consistent pressure and the secondary, which had the most turnover from last season, played with unity. “Defensively, the guys played well,” Graves said. “We had some aggressive penalties.
We forced two fumbles, and on another one the refs ruled the runner down. “They had a few three-and-outs. We attacked the ball.
We have to tackle better, clean up some angles. We missed some tackles and that’s to be expected at this point. The defensive line and linebackers provided a lot of pressure and played the run well.
Overall, a good effort.” Quarterbacks were off limits for tackling but Darrius Harry, Jelani Davis and Cameron Plummer were credited with sacks. Davis was credited with two quarterback hits while Ckelby Givens, Lance Joseph and Plummer had one each.
Defensive backs dropped a pair of potential interceptions but broke up several passes, Graves said. Safety Horacio Johnson tackled well and broke up a pass, as did Luke Rose, Herman Brister and Rodney Johnson. Freshman cornerback Eric Reed also was impressive.
Southern had limited special-teams work. Josh Griffin made all three of his field goal attempts and extra points. The Jaguars did not run any live punting plays.
“(Linebackers) Derrick Williams, Josh Tate, Mike Jones and Vincent Paige were very physical with tackles for loss. They stopped a fourth and 1 by the offense,” Graves said. “They played with a lot of excitement and energy.
We have a ways to go but we’re headed in the right direction.”.
