Aug. 15, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
After 19 preseason practices, which will culminate Saturday with the annual Passages Scrimmage, the Illinois State football team is determined to right the wrongs from last season's 4-7 campaign. The made another attempt at correcting some of those mistakes during the penultimate practice of camp Friday night, as they practiced under the Hancock Stadium lights for 24, five-minute periods.
With the focus of Friday night's workout on preparing for Saturday's scrimmage, head coach Denver Johnson was hoping that his team would make good use of its previous practices to get in the correct mindset.
"I thought that (Friday night's) practice was good, overall," said Johnson. "There were a few disappointing aspects, such as guys jumping offside a few too many times, which is easily correctible but still disturbing to me. At this point in camp, we shouldn't have those types of mistakes, especially from our veteran players. We cannot come out here (Saturday) night and not execute our offense properly.
"I asked for a high-tempo and fast practice (Friday) night and I got that, so I was very pleased, in that regard. We're looking forward to Saturday night's scrimmage, as it will be one of our last opportunities to put the ball in play with referees before our first game."
Just as it had done throughout many of the team's preseason practices, the Redbird defense looked sharp throughout the two-hour workout. During the 7-on-7 drill, senior safety Tom Nelson had a pair of pass breakups off of throws from projected starting quarterback Kevin Brockway, who looked sharp - despite the two errant throws - as he completed 5-of-7 passes.
Later in the practice, the Redbirds broke out into an abbreviated scrimmage with a third-and-10 situation from their own 19-yard line. This time, Brockway wasn't so lucky with his passing, as he was sacked by defensive lineman Doni Phelps. Also adding a quarterback sack was Eric Brunner, who took down Drew Kiel behind the line of scrimmage.
The defensive highlight of the practice came on the next play. With assistant coach Mike Menefee telling the Redbird defense that he, "smells a pick coming," linebacker Tony Trujillo tipped a pass from Kiel, which was then picked up by Nelson and run into the end zone for an easy defensive touchdown.
The lone bright spot for the ISU offense during the scrimmage was a stellar run by tailback Parrish Fischer, who took a short pitch from Brockway, and after eluding two defenders, ran down the near sideline for what would have been a touchdown if the play had not been whistled dead.
The Redbirds will hold their annual Passages Scrimmage Saturday in conjunction with the Redbird Fan Fair, which will take place from 5-7 p.m. at "The Plaza," located in between Redbird Arena and Horton Field House. Illinois State will suit up and hit the turf at Hancock Stadium at 7 p.m.
Admission to the scrimmage is free to the public.
NOTABLE:
Bert Whigham, Austin Davis, Ben Graves and Brannon Sanford were all sidelined with various injuries.
The fox that has made numerous appearances during camp once again showed up late in practice, as it scampered across the south end zone, just in front of "The Zoo."
