Huesman generally pleased with UTC scrimmage
As University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior linebacker Nakevion Leslie exited Saturday afternoon’s closed scrimmage at Finley Stadium, he smiled and said, “We (the defense) can’t wait to get a different opponent so we can turn it up a notch.”
Countered junior quarterback Alejandro Bennifield, perhaps mildly offended at the notion the defense had taken it slightly easy on the offense: “We didn’t run all of our plays, either.”
Perhaps not, but other than his decision not to practice the Moc Walk, UTC head coach Russ Huesman was quite pleased overall with all his team did run through in its next-to-last scrimmage at Finley prior to the Sept. 1 season opener against Shorter University on this same Davenport Field.
“This was huge,” Huesman said. “This was our dress rehearsal. We worked on how to line up for pregame warmups and going to the locker room after those warmups, because some of them haven’t done that before. We went to the locker room the same way we would at halftime. You’ve got to do these things. I even thought about practicing the Moc Walk, but we didn’t.”
Judging by the numbers, Bennifield and wideout Xavier Borishade certainly seem ready for the opener. Bennifield hit 14 of 16 passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Borishade caught both scoring throws, plus two other passes for 61 total yards. Senior kicker Henrique Ribeiro was 2-for-3 on field goals, connecting from 42 and 24 yards while missing from 41 yards away.
“The best thing about this is to see where we are and where we’re going,” said Borishade, a senior receiver from Kennesaw, Ga. “I thought we looked good today, but there’s still a lot we can work on. I know I could be better blocking.”
Added Huesman, returning to his earlier dress-rehearsal theme: “We were able to work on so many things. We got into some two-minute offense. We were able to get a lot of young kids snaps. I’ll have to wait to look at film to see how some things went, but this was a good prep day.”
It can always get better, of course.
Borishade spoke of needing to have “everyone in the game more hyped up and juiced up.”
Echoing those sentiments, Huesman said, “There needs to be a little better sense of urgency for some of these guys. Our really good players are playing really well and at a high level. We need another 10 to 15 guys to take those steps. We’re not ready yet, but thank goodness we still have 14 or so more practices to get there.”
And if one of those practices included preparation for the Moc Walk, Borishade wouldn’t complain a bit.
“If Coach brings people, I’d love to do that,” he said, perhaps knowing that this coming Saturday’s final preseason scrimmage is expected to be open to the public. “I love the Moc Walk. It’s one of my favorite things on game day.”
If nothing else, it would almost certainly get the crowd more hyped up and juiced up to watch preseason football in August.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com