Coach Huesman not happy with UTC scrimmage
The defense had four sacks, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team’s first scrimmage of the 2015 preseason Friday afternoon.
And still received one not-so-good grade from the head coach.
The offense erupted for a number of big plays in the 70-play scrimmage at Finley Stadium, including three touchdowns exceeding 35 yards — two of which surpassed 50 yards. The team ran eight plays before a one-hour rain delay.
“I thought defensively we were horrible today,” coach Russ Huesman said. “Poor tackling, too many big plays, no pass rush: All things a defensive team cannot do, we did today. We were very, very poor, and all I’m hoping and praying is that I go in and watch the film and see some individual performances … some guys that got better. Offensively we hit some big plays on them, but we turned the ball over too many times and had too many stupid penalties.
“We did things that will get you beat and get coaches fired. We’ve got a lot to clean up.”
On the second snap of the afternoon, Derrick Craine covered 57 of his scrimmage-high 58 yards on one play. Three plays later, Wil Young received a pass from Jacob Huesman on a screen and took the ball 55 yards for a score.
After the delay, backup quarterback Alejandro Bennifield sprinted 38 yards untouched for a score.
Quarterback Huesman finished 5-for-7 for 76 passing yards, while Bennifield was 7-for-11 for 32 yards. Tyler Roberson was 3-for-8 for 10 yards but ran nine times for 40 yards.
True freshman Kyle Nalls carried the ball 10 times
for 42 yards.
Defensively, linebacker Dale Warren had an interception and a fumble recovery and Keionta Davis had a pair of sacks. A.J. Hampton had an interception and a tackle for loss.
Montrell Pardue had the scrimmage’s other interception, while junior Vantrell McMillan and true freshman Khayyan Edwards had sacks.
“Any time you play against yourself, there’s give and take,” Coach Huesman said. “What bothers me is we’ve got veteran defensive players not doing their assignment, and that’s why we hit big plays.
“I hope to see some individual performances that were good (on film), but overall it was not a good scrimmage.”
The Mocs will practice at 3 this afternoon at Finley Stadium.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/ genehenleytfp.