After a light morning practice, the Illinois State football team took to the field Saturday afternoon for their first live scrimmage with referees present.
The Redbirds worked primarily on game situations from all around the field, including goal line plays. Going into his fourth season as head coach at Illinois State, Denver Johnson feels this is the deepest roster hes had since coming to Normal.
For the first time since Ive been here weve got three huddles on both sides of the ball, Johnson said. Were trying to give everybody a big dose of it and we want to get those young pups out there and just let them play. The only way theyre going to learn is if they get out there and do it.
The Birds scrimmaged for over two hours Saturday afternoon, and again, Johnson was pleased with what he saw.
I think it went well. It turned into a pretty long scrimmage, Johnson said. I think we got about 160 to 165 plays in. We left the special teams out because we wanted to get a good dose of scrimmaging in, so well hit special teams hard tomorrow.
Both sides of the ball had their high points. On offense, LaShawn Bullock caught a screen pass from Yance Vaughan and broke several tackles on the way to the endzone. A few plays earlier, Demetrus Johnson scampered down the right sidelines and into the endzone.
On defense, Ray Robinson tackled Harry Lattimore for a 3-yard loss, and also had an uncontested sack later in the scrimmage.
The Birds concluded the day with goal line situations. Kevin Kreger caught a pass in the flat from Mike Souza and scored a touchdown, while Ryan Thorne had a nice stop on an attempted option by Souza.
Sophomore offensive lineman Stafford Davis has been pleased with the way things are going in camp so far, but the team still has a lot of work left before the August 28 opener against Drake.
Were progressing in the right direction, Davis said. But nobodys 100 percent right now. The scrimmage was good today. It was good to get some live game situations in. Well break down this film and learn a lot.
The Birds take to the field for one practice Sunday afternoon at 3:30.
Notes
-Junior linebacker Boomer Grigsby sat out Saturday's scrimmage nursing a sore ankle. The injury is not serious and is not expected to keep him sidelined for a long length of time.
