Aug. 14, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State football team completed its final two-a-day session of fall camp on Monday night at Hancock Stadium and head coach Denver Johnson noticed improvement from his team's scrimmage last Saturday.
"As a coach, you always wish you had some more time and some more preparation, but I saw a lot of improvement today," Johnson said. "After the scrimmage we reviewed some things, but came out this morning and struggled a little bit. We certainly weren't perfect, but I saw a lot of improvement this evening from this morning. That's encouraging."
The Redbirds worked out for 24, five-minute periods in full pads on a cool evening. During the team run period, senior running back Pierre Rembert led the way for the `Birds with 47 yards on nine carries. Freshman Geno Blow legged out 15 yards on seven attempts, while Alan Abrams totaled one yard on two carries.
Although quarterback Luke Drone connected with wide receiver Laurént Robinson on a 30-yard play action pass, symbolic of last season, Johnson feels his entire team still has some strides to make.
"We are not ready to play yet," said Johnson. "We are a long ways from being able to compete at a real high level, but we are moving in that direction. We have to stay in the work mode. We've got to get our offensive line solidified and I thought we took some really good strides tonight. We've got a lot of work to do with the offensive line and a lot of work, in some aspects, with the secondary.
During the 7-on-7 drill, sophomore quarterback Kevin Brockway completed 6-of-9 pass attempts, while Drone was 6-for-11 with an interception. Reigning Gateway Football Conference Freshman of the Year Tom Nelson picked off the ill-advised Drone pass.
Drone bounced back in the final team period, completing 6-of-9 passes, while Brockway fell victim to the pick. Brockway posted a 4-for-6 passing effort, but was intercepted by Nick Passarelli.
With single practices every day this week leading up to the second and final scrimmage of camp on Saturday, the mode of operation will change a little bit.
"It's going to be a little bit more like pro camp (the rest of the way)," Johnson said. "We will eat and lift in the morning, then meet, practice in the afternoon and meet again in the evening. We've got four really important opportunities between now and Saturday to improve."
The Redbirds return to the practice field at Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
