When Statesboro coach Steve Pennington gathered his team for the ritualistic post-practice huddle, he asked his team how many of them thought they had made a mistake during Wednesday’s practice.
Every single right arm of the 108 Blue Devils in attendance shot up without hesitation.
“Yes — when 108 raise their hands that is a lot of mistakes,” said Pennington. “But we want our players to understand, the only way we’re going to get better is to correct our mistakes. Plus, in the course of a three hour practice, in this heat, there’s going to be plenty of mistakes.”
Whether it was an errant pass, a missed block or a failure to maintain a lane, the triple-digit heat seemed to affect every Devil on the third day of practice, the first in full pads.
But with all the minor flaws, Pennington said he was still pleased with the way his team has responded this first week.
“There’s something — already this is a special group,” he said. “When they come in the gate on this practice field, it is a very, very willing spirit to get better.
“(Tuesday) was a total surprise. After the first day you normally kind of have a little nose dive (on the second day). We picked up right where we left off. The players have responded beautifully.”
The end of Wednesday’s workout featured an intrasquad scrimmage, as is the case almost daily. The highlight was a junior varsity safety pile-driving his running back teammate on a breakaway run, sending the varsity sideline into a frenzy.
Personnel update
No major changes have been made to any skill positions thus far in fall camp at SHS.
Luke Connell is still the starting quarterback, while fullback Johnathan Coleman and running backs Nic Lanier and Patrick Jenkins fill the backfield behind him.
Deanthony Stevens, Todd Cone and Reed Pennington are all competing for the backup job at QB. Junior Lamar Stmage and sophomore Rod Murphy have shown positive reps at running back.
Graden Bozeman and Isiah Jones look to be the top two preliminary targets for Connell at wide receiver.
Chad Bishop can be reached at (912) 489-9408.
Every single right arm of the 108 Blue Devils in attendance shot up without hesitation.
“Yes — when 108 raise their hands that is a lot of mistakes,” said Pennington. “But we want our players to understand, the only way we’re going to get better is to correct our mistakes. Plus, in the course of a three hour practice, in this heat, there’s going to be plenty of mistakes.”
Whether it was an errant pass, a missed block or a failure to maintain a lane, the triple-digit heat seemed to affect every Devil on the third day of practice, the first in full pads.
But with all the minor flaws, Pennington said he was still pleased with the way his team has responded this first week.
“There’s something — already this is a special group,” he said. “When they come in the gate on this practice field, it is a very, very willing spirit to get better.
“(Tuesday) was a total surprise. After the first day you normally kind of have a little nose dive (on the second day). We picked up right where we left off. The players have responded beautifully.”
The end of Wednesday’s workout featured an intrasquad scrimmage, as is the case almost daily. The highlight was a junior varsity safety pile-driving his running back teammate on a breakaway run, sending the varsity sideline into a frenzy.
Personnel update
No major changes have been made to any skill positions thus far in fall camp at SHS.
Luke Connell is still the starting quarterback, while fullback Johnathan Coleman and running backs Nic Lanier and Patrick Jenkins fill the backfield behind him.
Deanthony Stevens, Todd Cone and Reed Pennington are all competing for the backup job at QB. Junior Lamar Stmage and sophomore Rod Murphy have shown positive reps at running back.
Graden Bozeman and Isiah Jones look to be the top two preliminary targets for Connell at wide receiver.
Chad Bishop can be reached at (912) 489-9408.
