April 18, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
NORMAL, Ill. - The combination of coming off a holiday weekend, 70-degree temperatures, sunny skies and the final week of spring camp resulted in a case of "spring fever" Tuesday afternoon, at Hancock Stadium, for the Illinois State football team, as practice was cut short after 21 periods by head coach Denver Johnson.
"We had a pretty good dose of spring fever today," Johnson said. "It's a nice, warm, sunny day and every other college kid on campus is out tossing a Frisbee or a bean bag and we are out here practicing football. We weren't as focused as I would have liked us to be. Sure we got some things done, but we didn't have the intensity and focus that I would have liked to have."
Johnson and his staff want to come back focused for camp's final practice on Thursday before the annual Red-White Game on Saturday.
"Our goal has been the same all the way through, we are just trying to improve individual football players and with that, get better as a team," Johnson said. "I would like to see us come out Thursday and be a little more focused on what we are doing. We have got to be able to beat that peripheral opponent and put that aside for 24 periods on the practice field. We weren't very successful with that today."
During the 7-on-7 drills, Kevin Brockway completed 17-of-22 pass attempts, while Luke Drone was 3-for-8, including two interceptions. Both Tom Nelson and Jesse Caesar picked off Drone.
In the team period, Brockway guided the offense through first and 10 situations. He only threw two passes and completed one of them. Pierre Rembert rushed for six yards on five carries, while Rafael Rice gained 10 yards on four attempts. Defensive end Ronnie Tate picked up a missed handoff and scampered 22 yards for a defensive touchdown to highlight the period.
The team drill was broken up with multiple false start and encroachment penalties, forcing Johnson to end the day prematurely. After a day off, the Redbirds will return to practice on Thursday at 3 p.m.
