Not even that looming, miserable, Southern Alabama sunrise is in full effect at 5:50 a..m., but that’s when the Greenville Tigers are raring and ready to go for summer workouts.

These two things are no small coincidence, as Greenville head football coach Patrick Plott said no matter how important the deed, it doesn’t take all day to do it.

“We’ve got a group that’s out conditioning, a g group on the turf and a group lifting, and we rotate the three until we get finished and then we go out and have a practice,” Plott said.

“It’s to beat the heat, and give us the rest of the day and also give the kids the rest of the day to get the things that they need to get done taken care of.”

There are several areas of focus for the Greenville Tigers as they trudge through what is sure to be a sweltering summer season of workouts.

But the team has a few ghosts to exorcise that have been lingering around since the conclusion of spring training.

The Tigers dropped a pair of tough losses in jamboree games to Valley and Robert E. Lee High School, and though the losses can’t be attributed to any one thing, the stumbles and fumbles on offense were highlighted as a glaring weakness to be addressed.

“Not only are we looking to build on what we’ve started this spring, but we’re also looking to add to our offense,” Plott said.

“In the spring, we didn’t have a  whole lot of offense then, but now that we’ve got that out of the way, we’re looking to add a lot more finesse to our offense.”

Plott is also looking to develop some depth on both sides of the football.

Considering that the spring gave Plott more than 120 fresh and familiar faces to choose from, he doesn’t anticipate any problems in building up his bench.

And though the Tigers’ defense had a remarkably sound showing in the pair of spring jamboree games, blocking, tackling and “playing assignment football” remain high priorities for the summer.

Offense will be the first put to the test, with a seven-on-seven tournament scheduled at UAB on July 16, and another at South Alabama the same week.

But for Plott, there are more important factors to cross off his checklist than whether his players are all on the same page or are even running routes correctly.

“The main thing I try to get out of our seven-on-seven tournaments is just to make sure that our kids compete,” Plott said.

“Win, lose or draw, as long as we compete, I’ll be satisfied.”