Click here to see the 2007 Shorter College football schedule.
Shorter head football coach Phil Jones admits that Thursday had a bit of confusion mixed in with the anticipation of players reporting in.
Dealing with housing issues, admissions, filling out paperwork and issuing equipment is challenging for 137 college students.
“You’ve got your focus on being on the field but these things have to be taken care of and they’re very important,” Jones said.
When the Hawks do get on the practice field, they’ll be faced with some important questions as their first game on Sept. 1 looms closer.
First is the yearly routine of putting in plays and defensive schemes while establishing the kicking game early on.
“So we’ll move pretty fast and spend a lot of time with the installation process so we can get it in as quickly as possible and then be able to rep it over and over and over before game time,” Jones said.
Shorter welcomes 47 freshmen onto the team this season, a number Jones says is consistent with the allure that football has in the South.
“I think it’s a mark in regard to the popularity of the sport in this part of the country,” Jones said.
“Youngsters really want to play and have played for most of their life and, for some reason, are not recruited by big schools … and we’re excited to have them.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Shorter will field around 14 seniors this year and have its first actual graduating class of football players.
“We’re getting closer to what is the normal process — graduating a group and then bringing in a young group,” Jones said.
“It’s good to have some experience back and at least a little bit older group back. That’s a big help for where we are right now as a team.”
Making up the biggest percentage of the team will be sophomores and juniors.
With the Hawks beginning just their third year of existence however, a majority of the juniors are in a situation where they’ve seen just as much playing time for Shorter as the seniors.
Jones, though, is quick to point out that they are still in the building stages of a program.
“Even though we’ve got guys that have played an unusual number of snaps for a third-year player … we’ve got more experience than we do maturity,” he said.
With that in mind, Jones knows that the competition for starting jobs this year will be tougher and it’s a sign of a program that is establishing itself further.
One position that the Hawks weren’t expecting to fill following last season was at quarterback.
However, Shorter’s quarterback last season, Alex Jackson, transferred to the University of Alabama in hopes of securing a walk-on role.
Jones said that they hated to see him go but they are not without players who can step up to take the role of the signal caller.
Topping the list are junior Caleb Jordan and sophomore Caleb Carmean, who both saw playing time behind center last season.
After transferring from Carson-Newman, local option Drew Elrod from Adairsville will be in the mix as well as Dylan Kelly from St. Pius X and Ben Williams, a redshirt freshman from Lassiter.
Whoever gets the top spot, choosing a new starting quarterback will be one of Shorter’s top priorities when practice gets into full swing on Monday, according to Jones.
“I think the team has confidence in more than one of them but just knowing who it is will be a settling thing and it will be one of our challenges,” he said.
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