Aug. 21, 2004

Columbia, Mo. - The Missouri Tigers scrimmaged for the second time this week, as they held an afternoon scrimmage at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. With only two weeks until the 2004 season opener against Arkansas State, competition was fierce during the scrimmage, which ran approximately 45 plays for each of the first four units on both sides of the ball. The Tiger defense, which has been impressive all camp, continued its solid play Saturday. The number one unit gave up only three first downs in its time on the field, and proved to be very disruptive to the second and third string offenses. A few highlights by defensive players included: CB Shirdonya Mitchell made a big tackle for loss on a screen pass on third down, stuffing the play for a five-yard loss ... DE Zach Ville had a QB sack and forced a fumble on the same play ... CB Marcus King made a nice pass break up in the endzone to thwart a scoring chance by the offense ... Fabian Bean and Elgin Childress combined for a big tackle for loss ... DB Ryan Edwards made several nice plays during the day, including breaking up a few passes ... CB Alex Woodley had a tackle for loss on a wide receiver screen play ... Freshman DE Stryker Sulak had a pair of sacks, and fellow freshman LB Aaron O'Neal had a tackle for loss... On the other side of the ball, the Tiger offense made plenty of plays during the day, scoring a pair of touchdowns, and having success at both running and throwing the ball. A few highlights by offensive players included: The number one unit gained 20 yards on consecutive carries near its own goal line by tailbacks Damien Nash and Marcus Woods ... QB Brad Smith completed a 15-yard pass to TE Martin Rucker early on, and Rucker broke a few tackles along the way, proving difficult to bring down ... Smith later connected with WR Sean Coffey twice, with the second strike going for 35 yards ... Smith also hit a streaking Brad Ekwerekwu in the back of the endzone for an apparent 30-yard touchdown, but the play was ruled out of bounds by the official ... QB Chase Patton made some nice plays during the day, with his first one being a 35-yard completion to fellow rookie WR William Franklin that came against the number one defense ... Patton and WR Chris Crosby had several connections during the scrimmage, and Patton found Andrew Hoskins four times on a scoring drive late on the day, with Hoskins going in from seven yards out for the only official touchdown of the scrimmage ... Patton had consecutive completions to TE DeQuincy Howard totaling around 20 yards, and later hit TE Jason Gannon for 15 more in two-minute drill work ... TB Damien Nash looked solid in limited carries, with one of his top runs going for 12 yards ... Freshman TB Jimmy Jackson continued his solid play, as he ran for gains of 20 yards and 12 yards on consecutive carries ... The placekickers got plenty of work during the day, and the race is continuing to be a heated one between several competitors ... Sophomore Alex Pettersen made kicks from 20, 31, 32, 32, 35, 37 and 38 yards, while transfer Joe Tantarelli was successful on kicks from 29, 31, 32, 35, 43, and 45 yards ... Adam Crossett made kicks from 29, 31, and 38 yards... Practice continues Sunday afternoon for the Tigers, who will have Monday off in order to concentrate on the first day of fall semester classes. Practice will resume Tuesday afternoon, with the next major scrimmaging scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Be sure to stay tuned to www.mutigers.com for continuing practice reports.