Date: 4/13
Time: 10-11:35 a.m. (CDT)
Place: Ladd-Peebles Stadium
Final Score: Red 31, Blue 7
Scoring Plays (drive information)
-1Q — 14:08 — Red 7-0 — Jalen Tolbert 39-yard pass from Cephus Johnson (Frankie Onate kick) (3 plays, 70 yds)
-1Q — 7:28 — 7-7 — John Tank Miller 48-yard run (Onate kick) (5 plays, 80 yds)
-1Q — 1:01 — Red 14-7 — Terrion Avery 5-yard run (Onate kick) (9 plays, 59 yds)
-2Q — 13:53 — Red 21-7 — Tolbert 52-yard pass from Desmond Trotter (Onate kick) (3 plays, 68 yds)
-2Q — 2:17 — Red 28-7 — Tra Minter 7-yard run (Onate kick) (8 plays, 70 yds)
-4Q — 10:31 — Red 31-7 — Onate 34-yard field goal (5 plays, 40 yards)
Play of the Day: In accounting for the lone score by the Blue team in the contest, John Tank Miller made a cut to the outside to go untouched down the right sideline.
Key Statistics
-Passing: Cephus Johnson 10-of-19, 180 yds, TD; Desmond Trotter 9-of-15, 101 yds, TD
-Rushing: John Tank Miller 6-62, TD; Tra Minter 4-36, TD; Terrion Avery 9-28, TD
-Receiving: Carlos Davis 4-3; Zac Crosby 3-76; Khameron Taylor 3-40; Jalen Tolbert 2-91, 2 TDs
-Defense: Jamall Hickbottom 1-6—7 TT, 2 PBUs; Maurice Strong Jr. 5-1—6 TT, 2 sacks; Taj Bickham 4-1—5 TT; Gi'Narious Johnson 3-2—5 TT, 1 TFL; Keon Voisin 2-3—5 TT; Cameron Hatcher-Owens 2-3—5 TT, 2½ TFL; Reggie Williamson 0-5—5 TT, ½ TFL; Jeremiah Littles 3-1—4 TT, 1½ TFL; Kwameh Lewis 3-1—4 TT
-Special teams: Frankie Onate 1-1 FG, long 34, 6-40.3 avg punting; David Webb 7-42.0 avg punting, 1 I20
Miscellaneous Notes
-The format for the contest this spring featured two 15-minute quarters under standard clock rules in the first half, followed by two 12-mminute quarters with a running clock after the intermission.
-The Red team roster included South's first-team offensive and defensive units.
-The Jaguar offense finished the day with 504 yards on 103 snaps, an average of nearly 4.9 yards per play.
-South's defense recorded 17 stops behind the line of scrimmage — a total that included six sacks — and also broke up nine passes in the scrimmage.
-The Red defense forced a three-and-out on four of the Blue squad's first five possessions.
-Four individuals were credited with multiple tackles for loss, with Cameron Hatcher-Owens posting 2½, Maurice Strong Jr. collecting a pair of sacks, and Riley Cole and Jeremiah Littles both recording a solo stop and an assist behind the line.
-Jag quarterbacks threw for 337 yards including connecting on five completions of 20-plus yards.
-Three of those five long gains through the air were posted by tight ends with Zac Crosby hauling in passes for pick ups of 30 and 27 yards and Nick Thompson gaining 24 on his lone reception of the morning.
-Jalen Tolbert led all players with 91 receiving yards as both of his catches went for touchdowns.
-Both Jalen Thompson and Jamall Hickbottom broke up multiple passes, recording two each in the contest.
Head coach Steve Campbell
On the spring game: "Today was a good day, we ran over 100 plays and didn't have a turnover offensively; I wanted to make sure we came out and had a clean scrimmage and offensively that means protecting the football. Defensively, the ones gave up one long play — I did not like that — but it showed some explosive ability out of Tank. Last year we didn't have a whole lot of explosive runs, so that was good to see. Cephus did a good job of moving the chains and he converted some big third downs, all of the quarterbacks did good things. It was a good spring, there was a lot of good stuff to build off of and I think we made it out heathy, which was also huge."
On the team's quarterbacks: "Cephus has had a great spring, we'll need to look at the film but I did not see anything today that would make me think that he won't be the guy going into the summer. Desmond has shown that he is going to be a really good player, and Tylan has shown that he can move around and when he keeps his eyes down the field he can make some plays. Tanner is going to be a really good player, he's still learning the offense and he needs more reps; he's not quite where the others one are yet, but he is going to be a great player. I like that group, it's a good group. Each day we went out that group made strides. When the guy who has been around the block in your group is a sophomore, it's a young group, but it is a talented group that is very hungry and is soaking things up right now."
On what the team accomplished in the spring season: "We are more physical than we were, we can run the ball between the tackles better than we could a year ago. We have more depth on the offensive and defensive lines, that's got to pay dividends for us. We are deeper at linebacker, last year we were trying to find the other guy to go with Bull [Barge]. Kade Koler and Roy Yancey are going to be real good players, Nick Mobley played a bunch last year and is a legitimate good football player right now. I like our depth on the front seven."
Redshirt Freshman QB Cephus Johnson
On how the offense played in the game: "It feels good, we did a lot of good things. We didn't finish how I wanted us to at the end, but the offensive line was great all day."
On his touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert: "Jalen ran a good route and they were in the coverage we wanted, I just had to get him the ball."
On finding tight ends throughout the morning: "They were just open. We ran play fakes and everyone did their job so we were able to get the tight ends wide open."
On the spring season: "Every day we got better. We had a few days where it didn't go quite how we wanted it to, but at the end we finished strong. We had a pretty good spring overall."
Freshman RB John Tank Miller
On his touchdown run: "My line set up a bunch of good blocks, my coach keeps telling me to be patient and see the hole open up. We ran the same play two plays in a row before that, and on that play I just trusted them. Coach always tells me I have a little bit extra in the tank so I stayed there, the line blocked it and there was a crease."
On having a good game in front of his high school coach: "It was amazing. My parents weren't able to come because they had to work, it was great that my high school coach came and surprised me this morning. It was a blessing to be able to do that in front of him and my other teammates."
On his and the team's progress throughout the spring: "I feel that we accomplished a lot throughout the spring even though we started off a little bit slow. We have a whole bunch of playmakers, toward the end we were putting in some new stuff and we just had to put it all together. I was battling a hamstring injury early, I came along at the end of the spring."
Redshirt Freshman WR Jalen Tolbert
On the spring campaign: "We all got better overall, we all improved which was something that we needed to do."
On his touchdown on the third play of the game: "I saw the ball and made a play on it and finished, that was good."
On the performance of the offense on the day: "We have a lot of playmakers in the receiving room, and a lot of people in our offense who can make plays. All you have to do is get them the ball, and if everybody does their job it will work out pretty good."
Junior DL Jeffery Whatley
On the Jaguar defense: "I feel like we came out and did some good things, we had a big play that we gave up to Tank where we need to just wrap up and tackle but for the most part I felt like we played well. We had a few chances to go and get some balls and we got them on the ground. We have to get better tackling, but once we do that we will be alright."
On if the defense accomplished its goals in the spring: "Coming in to the spring we knew we had to get work done and take a step from last year because we didn't do things schematically like we wanted to with the new staff. All spring everybody had to be on the same page — communication was big — and coaches taught us to just line up and play the next snap."
Up next: The Jaguars are officially off until the start of preseason camp, with the 2019 campaign slated to get underway at Nebraska on Saturday, Aug. 31.
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