By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech defense won the day during Saturday's spring game, but it certainly wasn't a one-sided affair in the situational scrimmage as the Golden Eagles did see some offensive highlights as well.
"I felt overall our football team got better today," said Tech head coach Bobby Wilder. "I liked the attention to detail – it's something that we've been working hard on. I feel like we played much faster today. The defense had some moments where they really shined. We had some big plays from the offense today. I felt like both quarterbacks (Dylan Laible and Jordyn Potts) performed very well and I was really pleased to see that good mix of returning offensive skill guys and the guys we brought in in January. They really showed the progress we're making this spring."
It was another session full of situational football and the players are responding well to that format.
"You know I like (situational football)," Wilder said. "We want every practice to be something they can learn from and carry over into the Middle Tennessee game and the Georgia game and everybody we play. We started with the offense in a really tough situation at the minus-5 yard line. At the end of the game, it was the opposite. It was the defense that was in a really tough spot, into the red zone with the ball on the 24. I always love to end in a two-minute situation where the game is on the line. They feel it. They realize it.
"To have it come down literally down to the last play of the game with no timeouts and two seconds left – those are the situations I want us to be able to practice so our players can carry that over into a game. It plays into our motto of 'Play fast, think fast.'"
The numbers were hampered a little bit with some injuries, but the Golden Eagles worked hard to overcome that drawback as they continued to work on the Tucker Stadium turf.
"What I feel best about after talking to our medical staff is no one has had a serious injury," Wilder said. "I expected by practice 11, we'd be bumped up and bruised, but I really like that the players are in the mindset of 'we practice football, we workout in the weight room, go in the training room.' The guys will be in there tomorrow learning how to recover. I'm really pleased we got out of this with no serious injuries."
It took awhile for the offense to get a touchdown against the full defensive unit. The first five full-group series ended with punts, but the Golden Eagles pulled together a six-play, 75-yard drive for a score to break the drought.
Justin Pegues led the series off with a 23-yard run, then Dylan Laible connected with Luke Shields for a 30-yard gain to get the offense to the 22-yard line. Laible completed three consecutive passes to Reece Perkins, Tremel Jones and D.J. Linkins – the final one a two-yard pickup for the touchdown. Hayden Olsen's PAT was good.
After going through punt return drills, the defense held strong for four more series. In the third, Daniel Rickert had a tremendous pass breakup as he climbed the ladder like an NBA center to deflect Ethan Roberts' pass attempt. During the fourth, the offense was able to get midway through the defensive zone, prompting a field goal on 4th down, but the 45-yard try from Olsen sailed wide right.
A play from Jordan Yates to Pegues appeared to be a 58-yard touchdown, but a penalty called the effort back. On the next play, the drive was halted following an injury, sending the team into the skelly drills. In this session, Laible was 2-for-2 on touchdown strikes, completing scoring passes to Quavel Thornton and Yates. Jordyn Potts went 2-for-3, getting touchdown passes to Jones and J.D. Dixon.
With the full units back on the field, Laible engineered a six-play scoring drive ending as Jones caught a nine-yard touchdown pass. The two-point try was no good.
In the red-zone situation, Potts used four plays to get Tech in the end zone. Tech scored on 4th-and-2 from the 6 as he completed the strike to Shields.
Into the two-minute drill, Laible's first pass went to Yates, who powered his way upfield all the way for a 65-yard touchdown. Switching to the next unit and keeping the clock running down, the Golden Eagles went 10 plays and all the way down to the defensive 12. Potts' final lob sailed incomplete, sealing the defensive victory.
Spring practice winds down this week as the Golden Eagles enter their final week of sessions. There's still plenty to accomplish ahead.
"We need to get our goal-line short-yardage packages in on both sides," Wilder said. "That's the last major component. We'll keep working on those special situations. We need to do the same with special teams as we've got some more special situations that Coach (Frank) Wilson may introduce next week. I like where we're at right now in terms of the players processing the new system on offense and special teams. We're fairly similar on defense, because of how good we were last year. I didn't want to change the structure, but we're making a lot of progress in all three areas."
Photo | Jim Dillon
