The Alabama State University football team went through its second scrimmage of August, running approximately 65 plays Saturday morning at Hornet Stadium.
And while the offense put up solid numbers for the second straight week, the defense performed well as the first and second units saw more action and were more diversified than last week.
LB Leland Baker led all defenders with five tackles. DE Chris Terry had three tackles and one pass breakup. CB Donovan Masline, LB Brandon Slater, and DE Chris Terry each had one sack.
“We have some good players on defense,” head coach Reggie Barlow said of the unit that was among the best in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the nation last season. “Last week we stayed vanilla schematic-wise. Today (Defensive Coordinator Cedric Thornton) was mixing it up with twists and stunts and a few blitzes here and there. They were doing well and playing fast.”
The offensive did not commit a turnover in Saturday's scrimmage, as five quarterbacks combined to complete 19 of 35 passes for 235 passes and two touchdowns. QB Greg Jenkins completed nine of 12 passes for 121 yards and led a touchdown drive on the third series which ended with Quendarius McKibben's one-yard touchdown run. The key play in the drive was a 34-yard completion to WR Nick Andrews, who caught five passes for 89 yards on the day.
QBs Demetric Price and Daniel Duhart each threw touchdown passes to WR DeMario Bell, who caught three passes for 47 yards.
“Offensively we got off to a slow start but there were some big plays,” Barlow said. “Greg Jenkins with the first group made some really nice throws and Nick Andrews made plays for us. We have a ways to go, but there were encouraging things.”
The scrimmage was again officiated by SWAC referees, who called unofficially nine penalties, seven against the offense.
“You never want to have that many penalties,” Barlow said. “The good thing about it is we had the SWAC officials here and they got a chance to evaluate our guys and we get to go back and coach them. We'll get that corrected.”
The Hornets will not practice Sunday and will return to practice Monday at 3 p.m.
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