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Defense Dominates in Black & Gold Scrimmage 4/1/2006
On campus in Nashville, Tenn. — The annual Vanderbilt Black & Gold Scrimmage resembled many of the team’s earlier spring practices, with the Commodore defense getting the best of its offensive counterpart. The featured scrimmage, staged Saturday morning in front of about 1,500 fans under blue skies, looked a whole lot like the Commodores’ spring drills to date: a confident, gang-tackling defense making plays and controlling possessions with a promising, yet personnel-deficient offense finding it difficult to sustain drives and tally points. Immediately after the scrimmage, Head Coach Bobby Johnson said he liked most of what he witnessed during the 66-play, 16-series session. “The effort was excellent from both units. I thought our guys played hard and tried to do what the coaches told them to do,” Johnson said. “At the same time, I’m sure a close look at the film will verify that there are things we need to work on to get better. “We were a little better on the defensive side of the ball,” Johnson said. “We’re a little faster and able to get more people to the point of attack. Offensively, we did a lot of good things, but we had trouble sustaining drives. The fact that we were missing several guys probably had an impact.” Sophomore quarterback Chris Nickson was among the missing Commodores. With Nickson out, the full workload went to Mackenzi Adams, a redshirt freshman who connected on 21 of 44 passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw three interceptions. Nickson, struggling with a persistent sore hamstring, was one of several offensive weapons hindered in the scrimmage. Both of Vanderbilt’s top tailbacks, junior Cassen Jackson-Garrison and redshirt freshman Jared Hawkins, were limited. The Commodore defense played as if on a mission, and might have controlled the scrimmage with a full complement of available offensive players. A punishing tackle by junior linebacker Jonathan Goff, pass breakup by sophomore safety Reshard Langford, and two stops by senior safety Funtaine Hunter helped the defense unsuccessfully stop the initial four drives. The fifth possession resulted in the first turnover, when Hunter rocovering a fumble forced by redshirt freshman linebacker Chris Johnson. A deflected pass by redshirt freshman end Steven Stone on third-and-short stopped the sixth drive. On the following drive featuring A-on-A squads, Adams engineered one of his best drives, hitting Jackson-Garrison for six yards and senior fullback Steven Bright for eight and 13 yards. Jackson-Garrison ended the possession with a spinning, 5-yard touchdown rush. The defense stiffened after the Jackson-Garrison score, stopping six straight possessions, two after interceptions by Langford and Goff. During the stretch, coaches praised several defenders, including senior linebacker Kevin Joyce, junior end David Carter, redshirt freshmen cornerbacks Joel Caldwell and Darlron Spead, sophomore cornerback Josh Allen, Stone, redshirt freshman end Broderick Stewart, and redshirt freshman linebacker Quavian Lewis. The offense, behind Adams’ passing, scored on two of the final three possessions. The quarterback found junior receiver Sean Walker open for the 17-yard scoring strike, then connected with Bright, who scored from 18 yards. The scrimmage ended as it began, with the defense getting sacks by Stewart and Stone to stop the final possession. Black & Gold Scrimmage Statistics: Offense: |
