STATESBORO — Just before the rain moved into Statesboro on Friday, a few blasts of wind swept across the practice fields adjacent to “Beautiful Eagle Creek,” as the Eagle football team finished up its final practice of spring 2014.
According to gseagles.com, the hour-long early morning workout finished before the deluge was expected later in the day. Originally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, rain caused the change in the practice schedule.
The shorts-and-shirts session, with temperatures in the upper 40s, will be a distant memory come late July and August. While the Eagles won’t be on the practice fields for the remainder of the semester, Georgia Southern football, the spread option and Eagle student-athletes still will be a topic for discussion.
For the student-athletes, exit interviews, classwork and finals will fill their remaining weeks. For the coaches, spring recruiting begins as soon as the exit interviews are complete.
“Our coaches will have exit interviews with all their position group players, talk to them about things they are doing well, things they need to improve upon, academically, off the field, on the field, (getting) bigger, faster, stronger, quicker, (gaining) weight, (losing) weight, whatever the case may be,” new head coach Willie Fritz said. “Then I’ll exit interview every single player as well, it takes me about a week to do that. We think that’s important to make sure everyone knows exactly where they stand in our program.”
Starting with what he values as most important — effort — Fritz and his coaching staff have evaluated the Eagles, reviewing and grading both scrimmages and almost every single practice. In addition to on-the-field observation of his team, Fritz records his notes on a hand-held digital recorder and watches film after each session.
“We have a pretty good working depth chart in terms of first team, second team, maybe guys we feel confident who are going to travel,” Fritz said. “I have a much better idea of who is going to play in the kicking game for us, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are and we’re going to put that together over the next few weeks as well. What I am encouraged by is the level of competition. We are going to have a lot of spots that will come into play and see who is going to earn that spot when we get into preseason camp.”
For more information, go to gseagles.com.

Football camp dates set
Seven “Eagle Invasion” football camp dates are set for June and July, with the first session June 9 in Atlanta, followed by events in Stockbridge and Warner Robins June 10, Valdosta and Kingsland on June 11 and Augusta on June 12 . The Eagle coaching staff will hold an on-campus single-day camp July 18.
Each camp is $40 per camper and the fee includes a camp T-shirt, instruction and evaluation. Georgia Southern football camps are open to any and all entrants, limited only by number, age, grade level and/or gender. For more information, registration and required documents, go to georgiasouthernfootballcamps.com.