TERRE
HAUTE, IN (8-12-2006) – The
Indiana State Sycamores gave a good effort in their first scrimmage of the year,
as the ground game proved to be most effective during the morning workout.
A good crowd was on hand to watch the Sycamores go through a two and a half hour
workout under sunny conditions at Memorial Stadium.Offensively, the Sycamores were led by junior tailback Tony West, who put together 15 rushes for 163 yards with four touchdowns. On the third play of the day, West broke through the line and raced down the sideline for a 76 touchdown. It was the first of his four trips to the end zone during the 120-play controlled scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.
West continued his strong effort with a 25-yard score as he dove for the end zone during red zone work, and then plunged in from five yards and one yard out during goal line drills.
The only other Sycamore touchdown of the scrimmage came from freshman tailback Darrius Gates, who scored from one-yard out on a third down play. Gates proved to be the day’s workhorse as he carried the ball 30 times for 80 yards and the TD. Junior quarterback Ben Schmidt was impressive as well on the ground, as he broke through on three rushes for 32 yards.
“I liked the look of our tailbacks today,” head coach Lou West commented. “We have got some good guys back there, and they really got after it today.”
In the air, the Sycamores were stymied by the defense for most of the day. Junior signal caller Reilly Murphy enjoyed an 8-for-13 outing, tossing for 68 yards. Schmidt was 6-of-13 for 35 yards and an interception. Freshman Charles Dowdell was a perfect 3-for-3, tossing for 26 yards, while Kyle Toney was 1-for-1, completing a 7-yard pass.
“We will look at the film later, but I would have to say that it is still a tossup for our quarterback situation,” coach West said. “We did some nice things offensively, and we are going to have to continue to work to get better.”
Gates was the Sycamores’ favored receiver during the day, catching five passes for 31 yards. Overall the Sycamores gained just 129 yards in the air, compared to 302 yards on the ground. All five Sycamores touchdowns in the game were rushes.
Senior Kyle Hooper was 2-of-5 on field goal attempts, hitting from 46 and 42 yards.
On defense, senior Madison Miller and junior Dominic Howard paced the squad with five tackles each. Miller, Scott Cassell, and Brandon Logan each recorded sacks during the day. Logan stepped up from his linebacker position to record the day’s only interception, off the arm of Schmidt.
Also defensively, Cassell was credited with a pass breakup, as was Rafael Price, Kyle Monroe and Elliot Thomas. The defensive play of the day was on an inside handoff to Carl Berman who scampered 24 yards down to the one, but was hit by Miller and the ball popped free. The officials on the field ruled that the ball came lose before Berman reached the end zone. The momentum of the ball carried it through the back of the end zone, turning a near touchdown for the offense, into an impressive stop for the defense.
“I like our mental attitude,” coach West said. “We have got to bring that every day. It can’t be up one day, and down the next. We have got to be more consistent in our work.”
The coaching staff was looking for a focused effort after one week of drills. The players had shown flashes early in the week of playing good, sound assignment football.
“I had hoped that we would come out here and play with a lot of enthusiasm and execution,” head coach Lou West said. “I had hoped that we would have come out here and played our assignments a lot better.”
The Sycamores get right back it at tomorrow with an afternoon workout, slated for 3:00 p.m., with the team’s next full scrimmage set for Saturday, August 19 at Noon (EST). All practices and scrimmages are located at Memorial Stadium, and are free and open to the public. Indiana State opens the regular season at Purdue on September 2.