Team making progress entering spring football final week
4/17/2010 10:00:00 PM | Football
By Cody Stark Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE - Things went a little bit better for the offense during Sam Houston State's second spring scrimmage Saturday morning at Bowers Stadium. But there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Senior quarterback Bryan Randolph scored on a pair of 4-yard runs and tossed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Grant Merritt to highlight the offensive action Saturday.
The defense still dominated, though. The Bearkats forced five turnovers, including a 40-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by defensive end Coty Gatewood, and recorded six sacks.
The offense also committed four false starts and were flagged for holding and a block below the waist.
"I didn't think we were nearly as crisp as last week and I was disappointed with the penalties," SHSU head coach Willie Fritz said. "I talked with the guys yesterday about eliminating mental mistakes and pre-snap penalties. We had more this week than we did last week.
"But it is going to be good evaluating these guys. Some are taking advantage of all their reps and moving up the depth chart. Some are moving in the wrong direction."
The offense didn't sustain any long drives Saturday, but the Bearkats made plays in the red zone.
The scrimmage began with goal-line situations and running back Kevin Matthews and Randolph found the end zone on consecutive runs.
The most impressive drive came midway through the scrimmage when Randolph hit wide receiver Brandon Closner for a 35-yard gain on third and 17. Two plays later, Randolph dove into the end zone on an option keeper.
Sophomore Miguel Antonio also added a 25-yard field goal and Randolph hit Merritt, who had three catches for 51 yards, in the left corner of the end zone on third and 18 to cap the scoring.
"Whenever you are in the red zone you want to be successful," Randolph said. "You want to get seven (points) every time, but if you can get three that's OK. We just didn't want to turn the ball over. There weren't a lot of long drives, but the good part was that we scored when we got in the red zone."
There was only one turnover in the red zone and that came during the goal-line drills when defensive back Trey Wilder recovered a fumble. That's when the defense started to get warmed up.
On the second offensive series of full portion of the scrimmage, the defensive line exploded off the ball and senior quarterback Greg Sprowls fumbled the snap. The ball bounced into the hands of Gatewood and he raced to the end zone.
Defensive end Edward Decambre recovered a fumble by running back Vincent Dotson. Defensive back Mike Littleton picked off a pass from Sprowls, which was bobbled by wide receiver Jace Jackson.
Safety Victor Carmichael almost got the defense on the scoreboard again when he intercepted quarterback Tyler Copeland on the final play of the day, but he stepped out of bounds.
Decambre, Brandon Bruce, Darnell Taylor, Preston Sanders, Kenneth Jenkins and Eric Fieilo each recorded a sack.
"All it is is effort. Every day we are working hard, trying to make plays," Decambre said. "The effort is going to get us turnovers, the picks, the sacks and everything like that. The defensive line has gotten better. It starts at the front and moves to the back. If we get all 11 guys to work, we are going to be successful."
The Bearkats have three more practices on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday before the Orange and White game will be played Saturday at 9:30 a.m. to wrap up spring drills. Monday and Thursday's practices will begin at 3:20 p.m. with Wednesday's workout to be an evening practice beginning at 7:15 p.m.
The annual Orange-White game which will conclude spring practice on April 24. For information about the spring game, go to Orange-White Spring Game, April 24, 9:30 a.m.
The night before the game (Friday, April 23) fans are invited to the 22nd annual SHSU Football Dinner and Auction starting at 5:30 p.m. at the HEARTS Veterans Conference Center off state highway 75 North. Go to SHSU Football Dinner and Auction link for more information.
For information or to purchase tickets to the 2010 Sam Houston-SFA game at Reliant Stadium in Houston in October, go to Battle of the Piney Woods.
