By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter
Southern University coach Pete Richardson wasn’t happy with much of his team’s final football scrimmage of preseason camp.
“Inconsistent,” is the word he used. That’s a word coaches don’t want to pull out to describe the last dress rehearsal before the season opener.
That aside, one thing that’s becoming clear in the last two scrimmages, Thursday’s and Saturday’s, is the team made the right choice in Bryant Lee, who won the camp’s duel of sophomore quarterbacks.
Warren Matthews, Lee’s competitor, has been solid and the staff insists both will play significant minutes this season, but the thing is, Lee has risen to the call and held down his spot as the No. 1.
Thursday, Lee was 12-for-18 for 58 yards and a touchdown, a 20-yarder to junior Mark Henderson. He also ran nine times for 18 yards, according to statistics provided by Southern.
He also led the offense to a 32-yard Josh Duran field goal.
Beyond the numbers, Lee showed good judgment and patience and flashed that speed, both by design and in scrambling. All of those attributes will be important as the Jaguars will have a young and thin offensive line ahead of him.
Of the incomplete passes, two were dropped, including one inside the 5-yard line that would have been a touchdown as the offense settled for the field goal, and another was a throwaway, with no receivers open.
“In order for him to be effective, because he’s still learning, we need a couple of things,” Richardson said. “We need to get the run game started to take some of the pressure off him. And we have to pick up on defense, be aggressive on defense, so we don’t have to continually go 80 yards all the time.”
Lee also led a third scoring “drive” — simply starting a reverse with a handoff that turned into wide receiver Del Roberts’ 90-yard touchdown on the first play of the scrimmage.
“He’s starting to develop,” Richardson said of Lee.
Matthews was 6-for-10 for 40 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to Clevan White. He had two carries for 12 yards.
“The quarterbacks’ consistency and choices were good. I was pleased with that,” Richardson said.
Running back Kendrick Smith had three carries for 18 yards and two catches for 7 yards. Brian Threat had one carry for 8 yards.
Roberts had four catches for 16 yards, while Henderson had two catches for 24 yards, including the TD, and White three catches for 20 yards, including his TD.
Southern played without its top wide receiver, Gerard Landry (out after oral surgery), and running back, Darren Coates (hip).
The scrimmage, including punts, PATs and field-goal tries, went 61 plays.
“We got out of this without any major injuries, and now we just have to focus in on things we’re going to do for Florida A&M,” Richardson said.
SU, 5-6 last season, plays Florida A&M, 7-4 last season, at 2 p.m. Sept. 1 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
“We played hard, but I’m not pleased with the holding penalties, because it keeps you behind the chains,” Richardson said. Coaches called penalties Thursday (unlike Saturday, when SU brought in an officiating crew).
Defensive ends Vince Lands, a junior, and Dexter James, a freshman, each had sacks, as did linebacker D.J. Bolton, a sophomore.
“I wasn’t pleased defensively,” Richardson said. “A lot of them weren’t in position to make tackles. We have to work on that aspect.
“We played a lot of young players, so hopefully that experience is going to pay for us.”
Richardson said the punting of true freshman Josh Duran, who is replacing Division I-AA All-American Breck Ackley, pleased him.
Duran was 1-for-2 on field goals, missing a 50-yard try deep into the scrimmage.
Southern University coach Pete Richardson wasn’t happy with much of his team’s final football scrimmage of preseason camp.
“Inconsistent,” is the word he used. That’s a word coaches don’t want to pull out to describe the last dress rehearsal before the season opener.
That aside, one thing that’s becoming clear in the last two scrimmages, Thursday’s and Saturday’s, is the team made the right choice in Bryant Lee, who won the camp’s duel of sophomore quarterbacks.
Warren Matthews, Lee’s competitor, has been solid and the staff insists both will play significant minutes this season, but the thing is, Lee has risen to the call and held down his spot as the No. 1.
Thursday, Lee was 12-for-18 for 58 yards and a touchdown, a 20-yarder to junior Mark Henderson. He also ran nine times for 18 yards, according to statistics provided by Southern.
He also led the offense to a 32-yard Josh Duran field goal.
Beyond the numbers, Lee showed good judgment and patience and flashed that speed, both by design and in scrambling. All of those attributes will be important as the Jaguars will have a young and thin offensive line ahead of him.
Of the incomplete passes, two were dropped, including one inside the 5-yard line that would have been a touchdown as the offense settled for the field goal, and another was a throwaway, with no receivers open.
“In order for him to be effective, because he’s still learning, we need a couple of things,” Richardson said. “We need to get the run game started to take some of the pressure off him. And we have to pick up on defense, be aggressive on defense, so we don’t have to continually go 80 yards all the time.”
Lee also led a third scoring “drive” — simply starting a reverse with a handoff that turned into wide receiver Del Roberts’ 90-yard touchdown on the first play of the scrimmage.
“He’s starting to develop,” Richardson said of Lee.
Matthews was 6-for-10 for 40 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to Clevan White. He had two carries for 12 yards.
“The quarterbacks’ consistency and choices were good. I was pleased with that,” Richardson said.
Running back Kendrick Smith had three carries for 18 yards and two catches for 7 yards. Brian Threat had one carry for 8 yards.
Roberts had four catches for 16 yards, while Henderson had two catches for 24 yards, including the TD, and White three catches for 20 yards, including his TD.
Southern played without its top wide receiver, Gerard Landry (out after oral surgery), and running back, Darren Coates (hip).
The scrimmage, including punts, PATs and field-goal tries, went 61 plays.
“We got out of this without any major injuries, and now we just have to focus in on things we’re going to do for Florida A&M,” Richardson said.
SU, 5-6 last season, plays Florida A&M, 7-4 last season, at 2 p.m. Sept. 1 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
“We played hard, but I’m not pleased with the holding penalties, because it keeps you behind the chains,” Richardson said. Coaches called penalties Thursday (unlike Saturday, when SU brought in an officiating crew).
Defensive ends Vince Lands, a junior, and Dexter James, a freshman, each had sacks, as did linebacker D.J. Bolton, a sophomore.
“I wasn’t pleased defensively,” Richardson said. “A lot of them weren’t in position to make tackles. We have to work on that aspect.
“We played a lot of young players, so hopefully that experience is going to pay for us.”
Richardson said the punting of true freshman Josh Duran, who is replacing Division I-AA All-American Breck Ackley, pleased him.
Duran was 1-for-2 on field goals, missing a 50-yard try deep into the scrimmage.
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