Mills pleased with early progress of Bucs

Bucs head coach Jay Mills

CHARLESTON, SC - First-year head football coach Jay Mills has been impressed with the early attitude of the 2003 Buccaneers, off-setting some early setbacks in terms of personnel.

Charleston Southern has spent the last two days working in shorts, helmets and shoulder pads, expecting to take on full gear on Wednesday.

"We haven't been perfect in terms of our execution but this team has been very coachable so far," said Mills. "I have been very pleased with their attitude and with the leadership that I am seeing from the upperclassmen. This team appears to be hungry and very unified, which is very pleasing to see at this point."

While the team has been hit with some adversity due to personnel losses, Mills says returning players came to camp in good mental and physical condition.

"In terms of the individual goals that were set for our players at the end of spring practice, I think our coaches are pretty pleased overall." Mills said. "I have also been impressed with the retention of our returning players and offensively we seemed to have picked right up where we left off in the spring.

"On the flip side, we have so many newcomers on this team and it has become apparent that many of those newcomers will see significant playing time for us. It's important that those players catch up to speed as quickly as possible. We certainly cannot afford injuries in some key areas."

The Buccaneers will practice in helmets and pads on Tuesday, beginning at 9:15 a.m.Two-a-days begin on Thursday with practices scheduled at 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Mills also announced on Monday that senior placekicker Nik Zdral has left the program for personal reasons and is not expected to return.

Charleston Southern opens their season on August 30th at The Citadel. The team will hold its annual media day on Friday, August 8th, with a luncheon and press conference scheduled for noon and pictures to follow at the CSU Stadium.