The Illinois State football team is nearly two weeks into its orientation for the 2002 season, but the Redbirds had a chance to showcase what theyve learned so far with an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday night at Hancock Stadium, in front of a hearty crowd of incoming freshman as part of the Redbird Passages program.
On the final day of two-a-day practices, head coach Denver Johnson was pleased with the speed and abilities of his wide receivers.
Everyone got a good taste tonight of the speed we have added (at wide receiver), Johnson said. Dwayne (Smith), (LaMonte) Jones and (Ramon) Barber can make some acrobatic catches and they have good athletic ability and skills. We are starting to see speed show up there and depth in the wide receiver position.
Im happy with the progress there, we are not going to mess around and we are going to have a good receiving corps before its all over with. Im also really happy with the tight end progress.
Smith pulled in a five-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Zouzounis right at the end of the first half during the goal line session. Jones added a 60-yard score on a pass from Yance Vaughan to highlight the receiving corps. Needless to say, Johnson was also pleased with his quarterbacks.
Right now, all three quarterbacks are in the running., Johnson added. We need to look at todays film and evaluate them further. It will be an important piece to determine what we start working with on Tuesday to get ready to face Purdue. Tonight all three of them looked good at times and stunk at times too. We had way to many turnovers and fumbles but in the same time, we aren't always getting them protection. Right now, its still up in the air who will be starting. Each of them did some good things and Im still encouraged with the bunch.
Special teams and defense also showed some promising signs. Dennis Butler returned the first kickoff, during the return session, 95-yards for a touchdown. Defensively, Andrew Papoccia scooped up a fumble and ran it back 42-yards for the score. Sophomore Sam Yeargin also added two fumble recoveries, while T.J. Jackson, Chris Govan and Butler each added an interception.
Boomer Grigsby led the defense with 11 stops and Greg Helle chipped in eight. Ray Robinson posted two sacks along with his eight tackles.
The team came out every practice and took a step forward, Johnson said. I challenged the guys at the beginning of camp and I think we have really made some progress. We e have moved forward in the right direction and Im real pleased with that.
Saturday Notes:
There will be a special teams practice on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The team will be off on Monday.
Illinois States game at Western Illinois on October 12 has been rescheduled for 6:05 p.m.
