Scrimmage Recap
August 13, 2003 10:09 PM | General
August 13, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s first full-scale scrimmage of fall camp Wednesday afternoon was highlighted by the hard running of Quincy Wilson and a defense that at one point posted 11 straight stops.
Wilson scored the first touchdown of the scrimmage on an 11-yard run and finished the afternoon with 50 yards on 11 carries.
Senior tight end Tory Johnson scored the other two touchdowns for the first offense on catches of 25 and 9 yards.
“Tory’s had a good camp, he’s in the best shape of his life, he’s having fun out there and he’s a big, big guy who should be a good weapon for us this year,” said Rodriguez. “We certainly have (Tory Johnson) in our mindset when we develop our game plan.”
Rayshawn Bolden scored on a 9-yard pass from Charles Hales for the second unit, and freshman running back Erick Phillips plowed in from a yard out for the third team.
Yet it was the defense that had the upper hand. The defenders forced nine negative yardage plays, recorded two sacks, allowed only one long run of just 19 yards (Erick Phillips) and came up with an interception by Pac-Man Jones.
“We’re fast on defense and that’s encouraging,” said senior cornerback Brian King. “It’s easy to see we’re a lot faster than last year’s defense and last year’s defense was pretty fast. It’s fun and exciting and we’ve got two more weeks to refine everything before we go all-out against Wisconsin.”
Although Rodriguez wouldn’t say Wednesday’s scrimmage was overly physical, there were some eye-opening hits made by backups Jerry White, LJ Montinar and Dwayne Mundle.
“There were some good hits. I thought the first defensive group played pretty physical but I thought the second group played kind of soft,” said the coach. “The third group, I was just happy they could line up right.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez talks to his team after Wednesday's practice. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“We’re doing some different things on defense and they’re grasping it mentally,” Rodriguez added.
Quarterback Rasheed Marshall completed 10 of 17 passes for 102 yards and 2 touchdowns. “He’s seeing the field a little bit better,” said Rodriguez of Marshall. “He really has a good grasp of what we’re doing, but he’s still trying to read what they’re doing quicker. That’s the key for him over the next few weeks, reading what they’re doing against us.”
Backup Charles Hales hit on 9 of 17 passes for 43 yards and the other TD pass of the scrimmage. Third team quarterback Adam Bednarik was 4 of 8 for 39 yards, including one completion of 21 yards to Chris Henry.
“Charles has a pretty good grasp of what we’re doing, he just has a brain cramp about every six or seven plays and for him unfortunately it’s a major brain cramp,” said Rodriguez. “Once he eliminates those mistakes he’s going to be a pretty solid quarterback.”
Senior Aaron Neal was the top pass-catcher of the scrimmage with 4 receptions for 44 yards.
“He’s had a pretty good camp and he’s comfortable with what we’re doing,” said Rodriguez. “He played pretty well today.”
West Virginia ran a total of 89 plays during the two-hour scrimmage.
“We’ll have to watch the film and see how we performed and try to get better because we’re not nearly close enough right now,” said Rodriguez.
The Mountaineers resume practice Thursday afternoon. West Virginia’s next big scrimmage takes place Saturday afternoon inside the stadium.
Unofficial Scrimmage Statistics
Rushing: Wilson 11-50, Phillips 11-46, Marshall 4-19, H. Johnson 3-13, Colson 3-8, Alston 1-7, Smith 3-5, Hales 5-4, Harris 6-0, Total 47-152.
Passing: Marshall 10-17-1-102-2, Hales 9-17-0-43-1, Bednarik 4-8-0-39-0, Total 23-42-1-184-3.
Receiving: Neal 4-44, Henry 4-38, T. Johnson 2-34, Bolden 2-21, R. Thomas 2-23, Harris 1-10, Henderson 2-7, Fofana 1-6, C. Smith 1-6, Alston 1-5, J. Thomas 1-4, Austin 2- minus 13, Total 23-184.
