By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports
Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Weather conditions Saturday in Tucker
Stadium might have been better suited for a day at the Iditarod
than college football, but it didn’t stop Tennessee Tech from
working through a 65-play scrimmage.
The second scrimmage of spring drills saw the Golden Eagles
improve on offense from last week, according to head coach Watson
Brown. The veteran coach was pleased with the effort his team
showed, despite the less-than-ideal conditions. The temperature
hovered around 42 degrees and a cold drizzle came at a harsh angle
from the north in a 10-15 mph breeze.
“We wouldn’t practice in bad weather like this, but if
it’s a scrimmage we go in it,” Brown said. “We
would have to play in it, so we need to be prepared for it. Gameday
is gameday, and you play in whatever weather you get.”
While the Golden Eagle defense is running the same system in 2014
as last year, the offense is making some changes and Brown thought
that side of the ball showed progress in the past week.
“This week I really wanted to see the system better, not so
much the defense as the offense, and that’s what I saw. We
had better flow, and we looked much more like the team that we want
to be with the fast-paced offense. We weren’t standing around
looking at each other, and trying to figure out what to
do.”
There was no trick to making the improvements, Brown said, just
hard work in the past week.
“It was just another week of reps, another week of
practice,” he said. “We’re running the same
plays, but they’re starting to understand much
better.”
The offense is undergoing a metamorphosis, with the inclusion of a
position that features the deep talent Tech features at
quarterback.
“You can’t have Jared Davis, Brock McCoin, and Darian
Stone on the team and have two of them on the bench,” Brown
said.
The result finds two of them on the field at the same time,
sometimes passing, sometimes rushing – and sometimes catching
passes.
“I’m having fun,” Brown said. “It’s
going to be real interesting.”
Sorting out who lines up where is one of the staff’s goals
this spring.
“It’s a lot of trial and error, but what we’re
doing right now is much more polished that last week. We had much
better flow, and I thought we made good progress from last week to
this week.”
An interesting spin-off of moving his signal callers around in the
formation is calling the actual signals.
“That’s one of the things they need to learn is the
different voices,” Browns said. “We have five different
voices calling signals, and it’s going to take some getting
used to their voices and their cadences.”
In the Saturday rain, the passing attack suffered from several
dropped balls. Tech’s six different passers combined to go
12-for-24 for 108 yards. Charlie High led the way, completing
4-for-8 for 35 yards, while Jared Davis was 3-for-8 for 31
yards.
Instead, the ground game was the primary focus and 10 different
ball carriers combined for 284 yards on 39 carries, including all
four touchdowns.
Sophomore Radir Annoor had the biggest numbers, rushing eight
times for 71 yards and two touchdowns. He scored on runs of two and
five yards.
Senior Darian Stone had three carries for 41 yards, including a
29-yard touchdown. He also caught a pass for a 17-yard gain.
The other touchdown came on a 14-yard scamper through a gaping
hole in the middle of the line by redshirt freshman Brock McCoin, a
play that ended the day’s action. He had four carries for 27
yards.
“The other thing that I’m seeing is some really good
backs,” Brown said. “We held out some of the older guys
today, and we’re seeing some young guys really coming
through.”
Such as redshirt freshman Trey Burks, who finished with 42 yards
on four carries. The top receiver was redshirt freshman Tyrus
Rollins with four catches for 32 yards. In all, nine different
players caught passes.
The team has a little more than one week left in spring drills,
including the annual Spring Game next Saturday, April 5, beginning
at 12 p.m. Because of weather, Tech will practice two days after
the spring game. The team is scheduled to be on Overall Field
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons this week for practices.