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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Fall camp, which obviously feels nothing like fall, is underway at Southern University.

While many college teams are holding practice under the sun, Southern will spend most of the camp under the lights. The first couple of days are just acclimation periods where the team tries to build a solid routine before things ramp up.

“That’s all I have been talking about the whole offseason, we got to be consistent. We got to be disciplined,” said head coach Eric Dooley. “When I talk about discipline just understanding what is important now. Being offsides that cost us a lot last year but we got a veteran team. They understand and I think this spring they worked on a lot of things that I thought we needed to correct.

Dooley goes into this season with three new assistants on his staff. Quentin Burrell now leads the wide receivers.

Burrell and Dooley were on the same staff at Grambling. Willie Totten, the former Mississippi Valley State quarterback and one of the staples of the satellite express offense with Jerry Rice in the mid 80′s. And another blast from the past takes over for the defensive ends in Chris Scott.

“Talk about a guy like Chris Scott with the experience. Been around, coached around, and was an all-American here. He brings so much to the table,” said Dooley.

Now two key running backs from last year are no longer on the roster, Karl Ligon and JJ Sims.

As a freshman last year, Ligon was second on the team in rushing. Dooley says Ligon has moved on and they wish him the best.

Sims is still enrolled at Southern and this would have been his fifth year on the team. Dooley is keeping the door open for the Opelousas native saying he is welcome to come back to the program.

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