April 20, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State football team proved that Tuesday was an aberration as the Redbirds returned to their old ways with a fundamentally sound practice session on Thursday at Hancock Stadium. The Redbirds worked out in shells for 20, five-minute periods as the final tune-up for Saturday's annual Red-White game.
"I thought we came back today and had a much more focused practice," head coach Denver Johnson said. "The mental intensity was there, we got some things done and guys were just flying around a little bit more like we're used to seeing. I was very pleased with today's practice."
Both the ISU offense and defense made some big plays Thursday afternoon, particularly during the 7-on-7 drill. Quarterback Kevin Brockway completed 15-of-16 pass attempts, including a pair of 50-yard touchdown passes to Dan Passarelli and Antonio Adams. Luke Drone was 11-for-14 on his passes and also had a 50-yard touchdown toss to Adams. Marques Hawkins added a pass break up for the defense.
During the team period, Drone had four pass attempts and completed three, while Brockway was 6-for-15 passing. Jesse Caesar and Tom Speer each collected a pass break up.
"I was pleased with camp for the most part, but there are obviously some things that will need to be worked on in the fall," Johnson said. "If you take it into context on what we set out to do, which was try to improve individual players, I think we have a lot of guys out here that have really shown improvement. We have taken a really good step here in the spring and made some good progress."
The Redbirds, after an off day, will close out spring camp with the annual Red-White game, which is slated to begin at 2:30 p.m.
