TSU Football Holds First Spring Scrimmage

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Concluding the first week of spring practices, the Tennessee State football team held its first scrimmage on Saturday at the Indoor Practice Facility on campus.

“I thought the kids came out and played hard,” Head Coach Rod Reed said. “You shouldn’t have to coach effort, and we didn’t have to do that today. I thought everybody was excited about getting after it for the first time. I saw some bright spots out there.”

• The action began with 7-on-7 where senior linebacker Blair Edwards came up with an interception.
• Later in the 7-on-7 session, the local duo of quarterback Michael Hughes and wide receiver Lawrence Segree II connected for a long touchdown pass over top of the defense.
• Moving to full 11-on-11 action, Minnesota transfer quarterback Demry Croft put together a sustained drive both with his feet and through the air. Aided by tough runs from Te’kendrick Roberson and Earl Harrison, the offense drove down to the red zone before a third down tackle from cornerback Dajour Nesbeth stalled the drive.  
• Hughes led the next series for the offense, which featured positive gains on the ground from running back Seth Rowland.
• Following the series, the team worked on punt coverage before jumping back into live play.
• Facing live third-down situations, the defense had the better of the play in the early going. Newcomer Terry Straughter recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown.
• Harrison continued to impress, breaking off a couple of positive runs in the live session.
• TSU is scheduled to practice next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday leading up to next Saturday’s second scrimmage.

HEAD COACH ROD REED

“I thought Lawrence Segree caught a deep ball early on. He’s a young kid that we expect to step up at the wide receiver spot – I thought he did a good job. Te’kendrick Roberson had some pretty good runs in there. Demry Croft drove the offense down the field with some efficiency – so did Michael Hughes, so that’s a good problem to have when you have two really good quarterbacks. (Kalen) Whitlow came in at the end and did some good things, so we’re excited about where we are right now.”

- On the highlights from the scrimmage

“You always want to see who will stick their face in there and hit somebody. It was good to get about 10 plays live. With limited numbers, we didn’t want to do a lot of live stuff, so we limited that to 10 plays.”

- On going live at the end of practice

TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS