The Georgia Southern football team has hosted a few 7-on-7 camps this summer. Friday saw some local teams out there competing as Statesboro, Southeast Bulloch and Portal were all in attendance.

For the Blue Devils, who are breaking in a new quarterback, Friday was an opportunity to see their growth in a game-type atmosphere.

“Football is different from basketball and baseball in that we don’t get a chance to compete with other teams too much,” head coach Matt Dobson said. “Working on the timing and the reads for the quarterbacks is very important. For the defensive backs it is also important for them to work on communication and coverages. The quarterbacks are seeing the defense drop seven which is more than you will usually see in a game, but to see the windows and gaps has been important. I feel things were very productive for us.”

For Southeast Bulloch coach Jared Zito, a 7-on-7 camp isn’t as necessary for his offense, which is run-based, but he liked what he saw Friday as well.

“We are really concentrating on our third down passing offense as well as our pass defense,” Zito said. “We are really just looking for progress on what we are doing in a game-type atmosphere. Overall, I have been pleased. We are throwing the ball well and running good routes on offense. On defense I have seen a lot of improvement. We are just trying to identify personnel and finding out who really wants to compete.”

All three teams are looking at replacing the quarterback position. For the Portal Panthers senior Brian McQueen saw some snaps at quarterback last season, but they are also working a couple other players in under center.  

“We have rotated Brian McQueen along with Chase Smith and Kobe Burroughs,” said Portal coach Jason McEachin. “They have all made good throws when they had the opportunity. You could tell it was their first real reps against other teams, but I have liked what I have seen. Overall, we wanted to see competitive effort, and I feel like we saw that from everyone out here today.”

With the new Tippens training facility teams can now take advantage of being able to get out of the hot summer sun, something some of the former Georgia Southern players who were on hand would have enjoyed in their playing days.

“I saw Dobson and Adrian Peterson and we were all wishing we had this when we were here.,” said former Eagle linebacker and current Wayne County head coach John Mohring. “We talked about how hot the walk down to Eagle Creek was, and now it feels like they have air conditioning out here. It’s nice to feel like we helped kind of pave the way for this to be here today.”