SFA Fall Camp Report - Scrimmage One
8/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Scrimmage One Photo Gallery (Aug. 22, 2015)
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After over a week and a half of camp and 13 practices under its belt, Stephen F. Austin finally took to the turf at Homer Bryce Stadium for its first scrimmage of fall camp. And as you would expect from the first game-like environment, there were both highs and lows.
“One thing that became clear from today is that we’re not ready to play a game quite yet, but the good news is we don’t have to for two more weeks,” said head coach Clint Conque. “We repped every player on the roster that was healthy and some guys took advantage of the opportunity.”
Conque and his Lumberjacks ran through a 98-play scrimmage at Homer Bryce as both the offense and defense had bright spots seeing their first extended “live” session of the season. Junior quarterback Zach Conque continued to emerge as a leader, making big throws and extending drives with his legs, rushing for a touchdown and connecting on a textbook 34-yard strike to Robert Sylvester.
Among the other SFA receivers, sophomore A.J. Jones and freshman Kiki Hill also hauled in touchdown passes, including a nice extension from the freshman Hill near the end of the scrimmage. Transfers De’Quann Ruffin and Cole Carter, freshman Jonathan Sam and sophomore Aaron Piper made memorable plays as well.
On the ground, senior Fred Ford set the tone early, breaking off a 45-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the night, eluding tacklers and racing down the sidelines for an impressive score. Senior Cameron Washington found the endzone as well, cutting through a maze of defenders for a five-yard score, as junior Joshawa West made a few nice runs in his limited snaps.
A number of newcomers also raised some eyebrows on the ground, including freshman Loren Easly who flashed the speed and quickness Conque raved about on Signing Day. Redshirt freshman Jacolby Whitaker made some decisive runs as well.
Defensively, SFA came up the biggest when it counted the most – with their backs against the line. Most notably, the Lumberjack defense stepped up in the fourth series of the night, as after sitting at first and goal from the six-yard line, the defense made four-straight stops, keeping the SFA offense out of the endzone. That then led to four-straight three-and-outs for the ‘Jack offensive units as the purple shirts continued to build confidence.
The pressure from the SFA defensive secondary forced a significant number of dropped balls from the SFA wide receivers as transfers Germod Williams and Zack Starnes, along with Hipolito Corporan, Demundre Freeman and Tarrin Mitchell, flexed their muscles against the revamed SFA receiving corps.
With a significant number of SFA starters and key reserves sitting the scrimmage out, it gave an opportunity for younger players to make their mark and state their case for playing time. They will get an even bigger opportunity Wednesday night at the second scrimmage of fall camp as Conque anticipates the veterans to play just a series or two.
“There were some guys that were out there looking for jobs today,” Conque said. “If you equate this to the National Football League, this was preseason game three and Wednesday is preseason game four. There are true freshmen that, like it or not, are probably going to be needed to step up in some role to help our football team this year. As many times as we can put them in these situations, hopefully they can respond and take advantage of their opportunities.”
Q&A with Head Coach Clint Conque
On his overall thoughts about the first scrimmage:
“I think we got out pretty healthy, which is always the number one goal. The positive things first, I thought we ran the football pretty well. Joshawa West and Fred Ford had some good runs, and Loren Easly, the true freshman from Houston, you got to see why we’ve been so high on him. He certainly looked very powerful and fluid today. For the negative, just too many drops. We had something like seven or eight dropped balls which would have moved the chains and converted third downs. We dropped about a 50-yard touchdown pass. It was good that the same young man (Robert Sylvester) came back and had a nice touchdown catch later in the scrimmage. What I told the team afterward was that you need to have the poise under pressure to take advantage of opportunities and make those fundamental plays. We just didn’t see enough of those today.”
On some of the offensive players that made an impression:
“I thought Cole Carter flashed a couple times. He showed his abilities to make plays. Aaron Piper had some big plays as well, and he’s had a great camp to this point. He is going to be a playmaker for us this season and moving forward. We have bigger receivers this year, there is no question about that, and they can make plays. I thought De’Quann Ruffin had some big plays today, and we expect him to help us this season. Our biggest thing is just consistency. Hunter Taylor didn’t have a very good day today, but he’s really had a special camp. But scrimmages and games are double bonus points and that is where you need to respond, and he knows that.”
On the importance of the scrimmages for the younger players:
“There were some guys that were out there looking for jobs today. If you equate this to the National Football League, this was preseason game three and Wednesday is preseason game four. This is where those young players have an opportunity to make a jump into the depth chart. Jonathan Sam had some nice catches today, and he’s physically mature enough to be able to play now if we needed him to. We mentioned Cole Carter and Robert Sylvester and their performances today, and there were others. Loren Easly, Trevon Smith on defense, Teddy Britton – these are true freshmen that, like it or not, are probably going to be needed to step up in some role to help our football team this year. As many times as we can put them in these situations, hopefully they can respond and take advantage of their opportunities.”
On how the Lumberjacks are physically at this point of an abbreviated camp schedule:
“Today we scrimmaged without eight players who are either front line guys or key backups. You sprain an ankle, you tweak a knee – you just don’t have that much time to recover, and we’re in a race against the clock. In about 340 hours, we play a football game. If those guys aren’t able to go, we’ve got to get someone else to step in and be ready to play. It really has been a challenge to balance the physicality I know we need. We missed some tackles today, and the only way you can really tackle is to go live. But you can’t expose yourself to that too often or else you’ll get more people hurt. It has been a challenge to find that delicate balance to get done what we need to get done and staying healthy.”
On his feelings two weeks before the start of the season:
“Nervous. A little frustrated. We repped everybody on the roster today, and its never going to be as clean as you want it to be. They’ve got camp legs. It’s not like spring ball where you practice three times a week. It’s different in camp. We went 22 periods yesterday and really got after each other, then were back in the weight room this morning. I had hoped we’d perform a little bit better than we did today, which means we may need to make sure our mental focus is stepped up as well.”
