Football Practice Report, Aug. 20th
8/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 20, 2005
Columbia, Mo. -
The Missouri Tiger football squad held its second major scrimmage of the fall this morning at Faurot Field. Playing before over 200 family, friends and season ticket holders, the Tigers scrimmaged for around two hours in pleasant conditions.
All phases of the game were well-represented in today's action, which was a situationally controlled scrimmage. The Tiger offense scored several times, while the top defensive units had their shining moments, as well. The kicking game was impressive at times, as well, providing a good balance on the day.
Offensively, sophomore TB Tony Temple had the biggest day, as he scored two TDs, one from 62 yards out, with the other from 19 yards out. His first was an eye-opener, and seemed to jump start the offensive units which had gotten off to a slow start. Temple took a pitch, broke through the line, shrugged off a tackle attempt in the seconday, and got to the left sideline, where he raced untouched until near the goalline, when he fell into the endzone for the score. His second TD came late in the scrimmage, when he went around left end and raced into the endzone from 19 yards out. That TD capped a sterling 70-yard scoring drive by the #1 offense.
The ground game was in high gear today, as TB Marcus Woods, TB Connell Davis, and QB Brad Smith all added rushing TDs. Woods' score came from 12 yards out, and saw him make a nice cutback against the grain to free himself up. Woods also opened the scrimmage with a punt return that would have likely went for a 70-yard TD before the play was blown dead. Smith's rushing score came from 6 yards out, on a play that saw him roll left and make a big cutback to burst through the middle to paydirt. Davis, the true freshman, had a nice-looking 9-yard TD run late in the scrimmage, in which he displayed nice moves and also broke a tackle to reach the endzone.
The other TD of the day came from QB Brandon Coleman and WR Jason Ray. The duo combined for a pretty 20-yard scoring play, as Coleman hit a streaking Ray in stride in the back of the endzone on what was 3rd down and long.
The Tiger defense had plenty of big plays today, too. Redshirt freshman safety William Moore was in on a couple of nice plays, as he raced over to knock a pass away near the goalline that was a likely TD to WR Will Franklin from QB Brad Smith. Moore later intercepted a ball that was tipped by CB Domonique Johnson, and took it back 20 yards to thwart one drive by the reserve offense. Other turnovers on the day were gathered by LB Van Alexander and DL Zach Kauflin, who each recovered fumbles. The biggest hit of the day by a large margin went to LB David Richard, who layed out a Tiger receiver over the middle to break up a pass attempt.
In addition to Marcus Woods' punt return, the kicking game had other impressive moments. PK Adam Crossett and PK Scott Russell both hit field goals of 53 yards, causing a huge roar of satisfaction from the crowd and team. In all, Crossett made 7-of-10 FG attempts (makes from 27, 27, 29, 30, 35, 37 and 53 yards), while Russell was good on 9-of-10 attempts (makes from 27, 27, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 37 & 53). Additionally, P Matt Hoenes began the day with a booming 65-yard punt, and had another nice 52-yard punt from his own endzone. Hoenes added two other punts that were in the 49-to-50 yard range on the day.
QB Brad Smith closed the day for the #1 offense impressively, as he led a simulated 2-minute drill that ended in a successful field goal. On the drive, he connected with receivers Brad Ekwerekwu, Sean Coffey and Will Franklin twice each to move the ball downfield.
QB Chase Patton led an impressive drive early in the scrimmage against the #1 defense. He drove his unit downfield, as he hit TE Brian Barmann for 10 yards (who made another spectacular one-handed catch on the play), WR Jason Ray for 25 yards, and twice hit WR Arnold Britt for around 30 more yards total to take it inside the 10 yardline. Once there, though, the defense stiffened up, as S Jason Simpson made a big stop over the middle and S David Overstreet broke up a pass to stall the drive and force a field goal attempt. Later in the day, Patton had a nice hook-up with WR Lucas Null for a gain of around 40 yards on what was a nice scramble and find down the left sideline on 4th-and-10.
Freshman QB Chase Daniel didn't have as much success as a scrimmage earlier in the week, but he still made several nice plays, including a good-looking 22-yard pass over the middle to fellow rookie TE Chase Coffman, on a 3rd-and-5 situation.
Later, the #1 defense was stellar, as it held the #2 offense to just 5 yards total on three plays in a drive that started on the defenses' 15 yardline.
TB Jimmy Jackson had several impressive plays on the day, including one where he made a nice cutback and raced for a gain of around 30 yards. He also had a couple of plays where he leaped over an attempted tackle and continued downfield.
QB sacks were turned in by DE Stryker Sulak, DE Tarrell Corby, and DE Elgin Childress.
News & Notes
- Practice resumes Sunday afternoon for the Tigers, who will then have Monday off, as they traditionally do on the first day of classes. Next week will see single practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, followed by a day off Friday, and a single practice Saturday morning. Sunday begins game week as the Tigers prepare for their 2005 opener in Kansas City against Arkansas State on Sept. 3rd.
- As many as seven Tigers did not play in today's scrimmage due to various injuries. Those included: TE Martin Rucker, WR Tommy Saunders, WR Greg Bracey, DB Marcus King, DL Herman King, DL Scott Wheatley and S Quincy Wade.
- Several former Tiger players were seen in attendance, including: Thomson Omboga, Nino Williams and Tyrone Roberson. Also in attendance was former Tiger standout TE, and current coach at Rock Bridge High School, A.J. Ofodile.
