CSU Football Opens Fall Camp

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Charleston Southern football team opened its 2012 fall camp on Saturday afternoon with its first practice of the year on the CSU practice field.

The Bucs open the 2012 season in four weeks (Sept. 1) at The Citadel. Kickoff is at 6 p.m. at Johnson Haygood Stadium.

CSU, under 10th year head coach Jay Mills, will try to build off a 2011 campaign that ended winless, but was plagued by a number of key early injuries and featured a roster of over 50 then-underclassmen.

“We’re excited to be out here and this group is ready to get to work,” head coach Jay Mills said before Saturday’s workout. “Because of some of the things we went through last year, we had a lot of guys get game experience they probably weren’t ready for, but that should benefit them this year. Hopefully our goals will be transcendent of the past. The past gives you an alignment for preseason rankings, but it really has nothing to do with this season.”

The Bucs will rely heavily on Big South Conference Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Charles James to try and return to the winning ways that saw Mills and CSU win more games than any program in the Big South from 2005-2009. He enters the season with 10 career interceptions, one shy of the CSU career mark.

Junior wide receiver Nathan Perera joined James on the Preseason All-BSC Team. He had 43 catches for 709 yards and four touchdowns a season ago. Both his receiving yards and catches ranked second among BSC wideouts.

The Bucs will practice once on Monday and Tuesday before moving to two-a-days in the middle of the week. The team will scrimmage for the first time on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., the first of three scrimmages scheduled during camp.

The Bucs will also scrimmage on Aug. 16 as part of their Media Day and for the final time on Aug. 24, eight days before the team’s opener.