Southern Football Notes pt2: 2007


Fiyah

Fiyah

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SU camp ending with 3 constants

The Southern football team?s preseason camp is nearly two weeks old, and, with classes starting Thursday, effectively coming to an end, although the first game won?t be until Sept. 1 against Florida A&M in Birmingham, Ala.

So, what have been the constants?


Escalating, oppressive heat.
Strange position battles ? at quarterback, running back, linebacker and on and on ? where there is a mixture of youth and potential and not so much a desperate need for urgency to find one guy. Instead, there is more so a sense of calm because there?s a feeling that finding one guy doesn?t matter as much as having depth.
There is a feeling that SU possesses interchangeability, between quarterbacks Bryant Lee and Warren Matthews and running backs Darren Coates, Larry Thomas, Kendrick Smith and Brian Threat and on and on throughout the team.

Everybody?s going to play. Everybody?s going to be counted on. And everybody needs to be ready.


Southern head coach Pete Richardson found three good ones in his three new hires for this season: running backs coach Elvis Joseph, offensive line coach Damon Nivens and linebackers coach Todd Middleton.

Joseph and Nivens, both former Southern players, are in their first seasons as collegiate coaches (though Nivens was an assistant to former SU line coach Gary Smith in 2003).

Middleton comes with a wealth of experience in a career that began in 1991. Because of those years, he?s more of a proven commodity, though unlike Joseph and Nivens, he?s having to learn everyone around here.

Joseph, who played with the Jackonville Jaguars, just started coaching when he joined the staff in the spring, but to watch him work with his kids is to see a natural, someone with a gift for coaching.

Nivens, a black college All-American tackle who went on to stints as an NFL free agent and time in NFL Europe, has, in just a few short seasons at SU and as offensive line coach at Istrouma, already started to put together a nice r?sum? of molding solid linemen.

?The first-year guys are doing fine,? said Richardson, who is entering his 15th season as head coach at Southern and 20th overall. ?I?m impressed with the instructional part, the technical part of coaching. All of them are energetic.?

All three will make an impact, if just because all three coach basically all-new groups.

Senior running back Darren Coates, with 119 yards and one touchdown last season, has the most experience in the backfield. ? More than half of Nivens? 13 offensive linemen have never played a collegiate snap at their position. ? And there are no seniors among the linebackers, with juniors and two of the three spots will have new starters.

As coaches and players, they?ll learn together, succeed or fail together.

So far, you can tell by the players, from attitude to retention, that the three new coaches are making the intended difference.
Saturdays await.

Story
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Nivens directs young SU line




By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Aug 15, 2007 - Page: 1C

Maybe the most important job for the Southern football team this season is being handled by one of its three new assistant coaches, first-year offensive line coach Damon Nivens.

The Jaguars are young and thin across their line, whose performance provides the foundation for the rest of an offense with depth and talent everywhere else.

Nivens? intensity and relative youth may actually be a perfect fit for this line.

?I?m an uptempo guy, real fueled-up, ready to go,? Nivens said. ?I try to get things done as quickly as possible up front, with an attitude and with dominance.?

Of the 13 linemen on the roster, six have yet to play a down of college ball: two true freshmen, two sophomores who were nonqualifiers last season and two redshirt freshmen (with right guard Joshua Keelen, on defense in the fall and recovering from shoulder surgery in the spring, not taking an offensive snap in practice until this month).

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/southern/featured/9166782.html?showAll=y&c=y
 
Keelen could be out for season

By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Aug 15, 2007

Southern University could be losing redshirt freshman offensive guard Joshua Keelen even as the team finally got junior offensive tackle Ruben Oliver back in the fold Tuesday.

SU coach Pete Richardson said Keelen, who did not practice Tuesday, might be academically ineligible.

?It may be a situation that he may not be back,? Richardson said. ?I?ll know in the next couple days.?

Meanwhile, true freshman guard Brian Bridges (6-foot-5, 330 pounds) will practice today for the last time until further notice.

Bridges has yet to be cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse. By rule, with his paperwork submitted and a final decision yet to be made, he was allowed to practice for the first few weeks, but with school starting, he?ll have to be pulled off the practice fields until, or if, he gets clearance.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/southern/9170172.html?showAll=y&c=y
 
Get Ready said:
Even though these reports are not true and Pete is just po mouthing, something needs to be done.
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Man, go shake somebody's hand and get off SU's tip. Damn, I'd rather you tell us about the new WMD at Jackson State than this crap ..... You used to be ..... damn.
 
Dude

GR is on your side with this one. There is no way yet another offensive linemen is ineligible. JR says Pete is po mouthing and GR agrees with him. Pete and Joe obviously have a plan to say bad things to set everybody up and catch teams off gaurd. This is a great plan.
 
Get Ready said:
Dude

GR is on your side with this one. There is no way yet another offensive linemen is ineligible. JR says Pete is po mouthing and GR agrees with him. Pete and Joe obviously have a plan to say bad things to set everybody up and catch teams off gaurd. This is a great plan.
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Sounds like the ol catch em off guard okie doke to me, too. But if you do that mess too often, then everyone knows you're crying wolf, so ain't nobody buying it,...but we do have some young bucks in the coaching ranks this year....I dunno!!!
 
Get Ready said:
Dude

GR is on your side with this one. There is no way yet another offensive linemen is ineligible. JR says Pete is po mouthing and GR agrees with him. Pete and Joe obviously have a plan to say bad things to set everybody up and catch teams off gaurd. This is a great plan.
Click to expand...

GR, you see it don't matter. If Pete was smart he would keep his mouth shut. SU folks aint hearing nothing he or Joe is saying. We don't give a fugg about what he has or don't have. It is on him. Who's fault is it if he only has 12 OL after today. Maybe if he had personally went to some kids homes on recruiting trips using some that 200 k we pay him then he would have 20 eligible OL on the roster. So he can cry all he wants about this OL and that OL. He better win or else he will posting with you next season. And we aint going to leave him a ticket at will call either. December 07 can't get here fast enough. At this point, anything less than a 9 win season is unacceptable. As far as I am concerned we can go 12-0 and I want to move forward with a new regime. But hey that's just me. I got LC on speed dial. LOL.:pimp:
 
Creating separation

Lee takes over as No. 1 in SU quarterback derby

su+lee+081607.jpg


By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Aug 16, 2007 - Page: 1C

Bryant Lee is the clear frontrunner ? and pretty much the winner ? in the quarterback derby between two sophomores at Southern.

?He?s starting to separate himself from the rest of them, and so therefore he?s going to have to get a few more reps to see ? what type of poise he?s going to have in directing what we want him to do,? SU coach Pete Richardson said.

The job is Lee?s to lose.

Throughout the early stages of preseason camp, Lee and sophomore Warren Matthews have been sharing the work with the first team.

Fifth-year senior quarterback J.C. Lewis, the No. 1 the last two seasons, has worked third, with redshirt freshman Gary Hollimon fourth and junior C.J. Byrd, who started games in October, sidelined after a car accident.

By Wednesday, Lee was taking the majority of repetitions with the first team. And as Southern closed its practice with uptempo team-on-team drills Wednesday morning, Lee took all of the snaps.

The plan is for Lee to continue getting that much work. Thus, the competition to be No. 1 is over, unless Lee struggles.

?We?ve got to start honing in and getting him more reps, so he can get the confidence and build the chemistry of the wide receivers,? Richardson said. ?Then we have to see how he?s going to handle this team under pressure. The next couple of weeks, we?ll zero in on what he does best.?

Lee (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) threw for 571 yards and three touchdowns and four interceptions. He was 51-for-87 (58.6 percent) and he is the team?s top returning rusher, with 302 yards and five touchdowns on 67 carries.

Read Full Story
 
But wasnt JC Lewis the greatest QB in the world last year? It must be nice to have an all world QB just sitting at 4th string. Way to go SU.
 
Who is this "air" fella folks are raving about? Is it JC or this Lee fella? If it's this Lee fella, what are his accomplishments so far?
 



Man, oh man, oh man. I feel for JC. I WISHED TO HELL that we could've offered him something. :tdown: He'd be a STAR @ PV right now. :smh: :shame: EXCELLENT kid w/ an excellent attitude? Damn. :shame: And, competitive too and has the skills? :confused:

:shame:

SU, y'all know how to show loyalty to your QBs don'tcha? :shame:
 
Panthro said:
Man, oh man, oh man. I feel for JC. I WISHED TO HELL that we could've offered him something. :tdown: He'd be a STAR @ PV right now. :smh: :shame: EXCELLENT kid w/ an excellent attitude? Damn. :shame: And, competitive too and has the skills? :confused:

:shame:

SU, y'all know how to show loyalty to your QBs don'tcha? :shame:
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As much as I hate this for JC.......with Pete crying about not having an OL, he may be doing JC a favor by having him on 3rd string. I am a big JC fan on and off the field, but I knew he was in trouble even if he didn't get hurt when Orlando took over the OC job again. Don't blame SU for the treatment of Qbs. Orlando is just a beast on them. Always has been. He is like Spurrier is on Qbs. Don't ask me why he is like that. Pete allows him to be. But in all reality no coach really shows a Qb loyalty in college or pro. That position is the one that can either make or break a coaches career. Watch how loyal Charlie Weiss going to be to Clausen the minute he throws an int a crucial moment. Coaches in this era are loyal to their jobs. Since Pete says he has no OL then he can't throw a slower footed JC out there. Even Oliver fugged up some of the schemes we ran when JC was in there. To run the type of offense that he would flourish in, we have to run the ball and not pass every down. If JC had Steve Wofford and the OL that Jacoby had back then, I am certain JC would have broken every record at SU. Kid can really throw the ball. But unfortunately Orlando likes the tall athletic Qbs that throw it and make something happen when the play breaks down. Then if you don't produce like he wants, then it can get ugly. To play Qb you have to be thick skinned. The fans are on you, the coaches are on you, your team looks to you. I commend him for even coming back and dealing with the situation. Who knows. He may have to save Pete's arse before the season is over. Oh well. Dec 07 is coming sooner than folks think.
 
Sam George was 5-9 on a great day.....Lionel Hayes backed up Jacoby in 1996 and we saw how Lionel's career ended up....you sure JR?

As for GSU and Bryant Lee.....you do realize the game was decided on a muffed fumble on the 8 yard line? He was decent but wasn't Sam George in 1999.
 
the band fan said:
Sam George was 5-9 on a great day.....Lionel Hayes backed up Jacoby in 1996 and we saw how Lionel's career ended up....you sure JR?

As for GSU and Bryant Lee.....you do realize the game was decided on a muffed fumble on the 8 yard line? He was decent but wasn't Sam George in 1999.
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And Orlando did not like Sam either. Sam drove the coaches nuts because he improvised so much. BTW, Sam was not the Qb in 99. Troy Williams was until a Gram defender yank him down illegally in the BC. Terence Levy was the Qb that came off the bench to whoop up on Gram and then win the SCG. Now Levy got along with Orlando. Coaches son though. Sure he was used to the mind games. As far as Lionel Hayes, he was not good enough to fend off competition. Nobody messed over him. Obviously he thought more about himself than Pete and Orlando did. I saw why. Hayes always melted down even at Gram in the clutch moments. Doug used to be :upset: at some of those meltdowns. I am glad he made the decision to leave. He may have been one of the worse Qbs to ever set foot on SU's campus. He was big and strong but that's it. LOL

Point blank, Orlando loves Orlando. All SU Qbs have had to deal with the pressure and some mind games. The great thing about playing Qb at SU, you are not expected to win the game by yourself. You just have to manage the game. Even though Orlando did get to pass happy later on.
 
I never count SU out of the race. One thing I give them credit for is heart. Look pass them and they will beat you no matter what their record is.
 
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