The unseasonable weather gave it the appearance of a late fall scrimmage.
The intensity displayed by the defense did too.
Friday's scrimmage, under blustery, November-like conditions, was only the first of the spring, and coach Frank Solich saw that his 2007 squad needs more time to work together, especially the offense.
It's obvious we need more contact work on both sides of the ball
Solich said. I thought the defense certainly looked much more consistent. Offensively there were a few plays here and there but certainly
as a unit
we weren't able to get much done.
We're just pretty ragged right now, offensively, he added. We need to get a lot better, but more scrimmaging will definitely help.
At this point in the spring
it is expected that the defense be ahead of the offense
especially with five inexperienced players shooting for the starting quarterback job. It was never more apparent than Friday
as the defense limited the offense to six first downs and no touchdowns in the 70-play scrimmage at Peden Stadium.
Everybody was just running around having a good time, defensive tackle Landon Cohen said. Eleven hats to the football every play. We kind of put on a dominant performance.
Junior linebacker Errik Ejike intercepted Josh Febus's 43-yard pass for the only turnover on the day. The defense added four sacks as well.
We didn't hold anything back on defense, Solich said. They were blitzing an awful lot. When you're trying to put things together offensively for the first scrimmage, sometimes that gets a little tough to handle. They'll get better as a group, offensively.
For the bulk of the time
the Bobcats' offense shuffled three quarterbacks in and out of the scrimmage. Sophomore Brandon Jones
who took a significant amount of snaps in 2005
sat out after starting the scrimmage.
Solich said he wanted to give Jones
