With the Tigers’ two-a-day practices slated to begin Monday, Southern said most of the quirks that plague a first-year coach were eradicated during spring training. At least, all the quirks that can be solved before practice in pads begins Friday.
“Probably the biggest difference (between being a first-year coach and having an established program) we’re facing is how kids are going to respond when you put them in situations,” said Southern, who replaced longtime coach Jay Warrick after Belton went 0-10 in 2006. “You can only situation so much in the spring. You can only situation so much during two-a-days.”
Before he can see how his team responds to those scripted situations of padded practice and an intrasquad scrimmage - at 9 a.m. Saturday at Tiger Field - the Tigers will have four days of non-contact practices.
“Any time you come into a new place and you have what we considered a pretty decent spring, I’m going to look hard the first week and see what our conditioning is,” Southern said. “It will be obvious to see the guys who worked this summer and the ones who didn’t.”
Three guys Southern knows will be in shape are his backfield: Quarterback Jacob Phillipe - a transfer from Keller Fossil Ridge - and running backs Khiry Robinson and Keith Daniels. All three played in 7-on-7 summer leagues.
And even though University Interscholastic League rules prohibit Southern to be active with his players in the summer program, he still feels good about the regimen.
“I was pleased and cautiously optimistic,” Southern said. “Our 7-on-7, I was pleased with our numbers at all levels. We had a huge group of young kids. We had a good group of JV and varsity.
“We didn’t qualify for state, but other than that we played several nights in our league and at three qualifying tournaments. It went really good.”
When the Tigers take the field for the first time at 7 a.m. Monday, Southern expects approximately 300 players to show up, including 134 freshmen.
“If we show up the first day with 300 kids,” he said, “that will be a key point.”
Most of the first four days will be devoted to going over what was learned in the spring, which Southern said should be a snap.
“Hopefully we’re going to go Monday through Thursday and review everything we did in the spring, then go Friday in a team situation then be able to scrimmage each other on Saturday,” Southern said.
“The early part of two-a-days, everybody’s going to be excited Monday. They’re going to be sore Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So you have to fight through that.”
After Saturday’s scrimmage, Belton will practice the following week leading up to an Aug. 24 scrimmage at Waco Midway, tentatively set for 7 p.m. The Tigers’ season opener is against Boerne at home on Aug. 31.
ecarifio@temple-telegram.com
