Aug. 19, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
Junior Jesse Caesar picked off three passes to lead the Illinois State defensive effort in the team's final scrimmage of fall camp at Hancock Stadium Saturday night, in front of over 6,000 fans. The scrimmage concludes camp for the No. 9-ranked Redbirds as they begin preparation for their season opener at Kansas State.
"We had a great camp, but I don't think we were very good tonight and certainly did not look like the No. 9 team in the country," said head coach Denver Johnson. "We held a lot of guys out and we were at the end of a tough, hard-fought camp. We wanted to be really physical throughout camp and get the heavy lifting behind us and then taper off physically as we approach game day."
In the first half, the Redbird offense went head-to-head against the ISU defense for 30 minutes with a running clock. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Brockway found receiver Warren McCarthy on the left sideline on a 34-yard touchdown pass. The score proved to be the only one in the half, which was also highlighted by the rushing attack of Geno Blow and Caesar's first interception.
"We weren't very sharp tonight offensively," said Johnson. "We got into our two-minute work and we didn't execute very well, which concerns me a little. But, we put the players in some very hard situations, so that's going to tend to skew some of the cosmetics of it as well."
After halftime, the `Birds immediately worked on their kickoff return game. Following the special teams work, ISU went to the goal line. The Redbird offense scored on four of the six plays from the 2-yard line. Senior running back Pierre Rembert scored the first TD on a 2-yard rush, while Luke Drone lobbed a ball to Laurént Robinson in the left corner of the end zone for the second touchdown. Blow also rushed for a TD from two yards out and tight end Bert Whigham caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Brockway.
Following some punt coverage work, the Redbirds focused on third down situations. With the ball marked at third-and-two, the ISU offense earned a first down on one of the two plays. With the third-and-four situation, the offense was 2-for-4. At third-and-six, the offense was 1-for-2, but the failed down resulted in a defensive touchdown when Caesar blitzed Brockway, caught the blocked pass and scampered 25 yards for the score. The defense also shutout the offense on all three snaps during the third-and-eight drill.
The Redbirds concluded the scrimmage by working on the two-minute drill. The defense frustrated the offense with multiple sacks and finished the entire scrimmage with 11 sacks, led by Dan Simnick, Brandon Wilson and Babatunde Soyebo with two apiece. In addition to Caesar's three picks, James Temple also added another.
Brockway led the ISU passing game with 135 yards on 8-for-16 passing, while Drone was 12-for-20 with 71 yards. Each Redbird signal-caller tossed two interceptions. Blow led the Redbird rushing attack with 38 yards on 10 tries and Alan Abrams collected 34 yards on seven attempts.
ISU will now have two days off before returning to practice on Tuesday to begin preparation for Kansas State.
"We had an excellent camp and certainly would have liked to look sharper tonight, but we got through camp without any major injuries and that's a blessing," said Johnson. "Now, we'll just fall back a little, catch our breath and gear up for Kansas State."
FINAL STATISTICS:
RUSHING - Blow 10-38, Abrams 7-34, Rembert 9-28, Corcoran 9-13, Horton 1-9, Brockway 3-4, Earl 1-(-2), Dall 3-(-5), Drone 9-(-40).
PASSING - Brockway 8-16-2-135, Drone 12-20-2-71, Earl 6-8-0-47, Dall 3-3-0-23.
RECEIVING - McCarty 7-70, Horton 2-40, Robinson 4-34, Whigham 4-21, Paschal 3-17, Rourke 2-14, Weiner 2-11, Zumbahlen 1-9, Dall 1-9, Rembert 1-3, Blow 1-9, Abrams 1-4.
TACKLES - Hronec 4-6-10, J. Tate 4-3-7, Wilson 3-2-5, C. Siskowic 3-2-5, Martindale 3-2-5, Stewart 3-2-5, Hemphill 4-1-5, Olson 4-1-5, Simnick 3-1-4, Campbell 3-1-4, Cucci 2-1-3, K. Siskowic 1-2-3, Marlier 3-0-3, Temple 2-1-3, Roberts 2-1-3, Whitaker 2-1-3, Nelson 2-0-2, Speer 1-1-2, Caesar 2-0-2, Soyebo 2-0-2, Pitton 1-1-2, Filin 1-0-1, N. Passarelli 0-1-1, Lagrone 0-1-1, Thomas 0-1-1, Rivas 0-1-1, Carroll 0-1-1, R. Tate 1-0-1, Hunter 1-0-1, Westbrook 1-0-1.
TACKLES FOR LOSS - Simnick 3, Wilson 2, Soyebo 2, C. Siskowic 1, Piton 1, Stewart 1, Martindale 1, Speer 1, R. Tate 1.
SACKS - Simnick 2, Wilson 2, Soyebo 2, C. Siskowic 1, Stewart 1, Martindale 1, Speer 1, R. Tate 1.
INTERCEPTIONS - Caesar 3, Temple 1.
FUMBLES RECOVERED - Campbell 1.
FUMBLES FORCED -- J. Tate 1, Roberts 1.
PASS BREAKUPS - J. Tate 2, Nelson 1, Stewart 1, Temple 1, Lagrone 1.
BLOCKED PUNT - Filin 1.
