The Illinois State defense had some fun in the sun Thursday, in the teams first spring scrimmage, racking up six sacks and forcing two fumbles, but Andre Whiteheads 80-yard late touchdown run ended the domination, while putting the Redbird offense in the endzone.
The scrimmage went nearly 90 minutes and featured 67 plays with all the action taking place around the offenses 20-yard line. The Redbird defense finished with 15 tackles behind the line of scrimmage and it was the aggressiveness that caught the eye of head coach Denver Johnson.
There was a lot of great effort again out there today, Johnson said. Guys were flying around defensively and it looks like were getting a better grasp on what were trying to accomplish on the defensive end. Guys are getting lined up right, in the right position on the field and with the right kind of leverage. Our defense was running to the football and making a lot of things happen out there.
In a scrimmage like this, you expect the defense to dominate the thing. We were putting all different kinds of combinations in there offensively, so we werent playing with first and a second units. We just wanted to get as many guys and formations on film as we could. But overall, Im really pleased. Im pleased with the effort that I continue to see out here.
Jonathan Friend recorded two sacks, while Gean Gilot and Ray Robinson finished with six and five tackles, respectively. Robinson also added three tackles for loss as well as a sack.
Whitehead, who scampered 80-yards with an off-tackle run on the right side, was the only Redbird to score. Sha-ron Edwards rushed for 59 yards, including a 45-yard run. Yance Vaughn led the passing attack with 67 yards, while Michael Souza was 5-for-6 with 47 yards. Justin Frierson hauled in six catches for 56 yards.
The Redbirds will practice again Friday at 3:45 p.m. The team is scheduled for another major scrimmage on Sunday.
