During Jeff Monken's four years as Georgia Southern's head coach, the Eagles didn't shy away from contact in practice.
    First-year coach Willie Fritz has a different approach — focus on drilling fundamentals and don't tackle to the ground. The majority of football injuries, he says,  happen on contact with the ground, not with another player.
    That won't be the case today at 9 a.m., when the Eagles take to Paulson Stadium for the first of two preseason scrimmages.
    That doesn't mean the coaching staff won't be watching for fundamentals, either.
    "In the most stressful part of a ballgame, you rely on your technique and your fundamentals," Fritz said. "It's like I always tell the defensive guys, you can run whatever defense you want. If you play hard, if you play with leverage and you tackle, it's irrelevant what scheme you run. We need to get that into the guys' heads. Some guys will resort back to playing sloppy, and those are guys who get their playing time cut back."
    Observing fundamentals in a game-like environment isn't the only plus side to a full-contact, full-speed scrimmage.
    "Now you get an opportunity to see if a guy really did make the play or not," Fritz said. "At  practice, it's 'maybe he really didn't make that run,' or 'maybe he didn't make that tackle.'"
    While the blocking and tackling will be full contact, the quarterbacks will not take contact. Each group, beginning with the starters, will run five plays starting in different scenarios.
    The scrimmage will begin with special-teams workouts.
    Senior linebacker Edwin Jackson, a preseason second-team, All-Sun Belt selection, is just excited to play in the newly-renovated Paulson Stadium.
    "Just hearing that echo," he said, "just being in that environment makes a big difference."

    Matt Yogus may be reached at (912) 489-9408