Southside looking for fresh identity this spring
Published 7:15 pm Thursday, May 7, 2015
New helmets, a new logo and new uniforms represent a fresh start for the Southside Panthers this spring.
Southside completed its first full week of spring training football practice Thursday with its first full scrimmage of the spring. Gone are many of the stalwarts off of the last few Southside teams — quarterbacks Khamari Gibbs and Scott Cole and running backs Damon Watts and Jhalandius Sullivan. Instead, Southside’s having a youth movement.
Panthers head coach Daniel Flowers knows his team has a young roster lacking experience at some of the game’s most important positions, and he knows things are going to have to change for the program to get where he wants it to be. He’s starting with the uniforms.
“They say if you keep on doing the same thing, you get the same results,” Flowers said. “We’re going to try something different this year. If we go a different color, maybe it helps. Anything helps these days.”
Flowers is staying mum about the team’s new jerseys until the Panthers are ready to break them out against the rival Saints, but he said they are white and are tight fitted.
It’s been a decade since Southside finished with a winning record, something the Panthers would like to change in 2015, but there’s plenty of work to be done before the season kicks off in August.
“The goal of the spring is to improve on the fundamentals of football,” Flowers said. “We’ve got a young team again. It seems like every year we have a young team — more young guys than older guys. We focus on the little things because the little things become big things once they are all added up.”
Another mission for Flowers is to find the Panthers’ quarterback of the future. Cole and Gibbs split time last year ,and the position could again be a timeshare in 2015. DeQuan Johnson and brother Malik Johnson are battling G’Neil Johnson for the starting job.
The Panthers are also looking for a running back to carry the offensive load after the team struggled to run it well last season.
“We didn’t run the ball at times last year. We threw the ball better and we had some pretty good backs then,” Flowers said.
The receiving core should be a strength, with entire group back and so should the offensive line, Flowers said.
Defensively, the secondary and linebacking group should anchor a team that will try to bounce back after giving up 30 points or more in seven of its ten games.
The Panthers will host their spring game Thursday against Central Tuscaloosa at 1:30 p.m. Flowers said he will find out a lot more about his team then.
“I think this spring training is going to help me define what this team is identity wise,” Flowers said. “I don’t really know what the identity is. We’ll find out next Thursday against Central, against a 5A football school.”