Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns held their first scrimmage of the 2012 season at Cajun Field Saturday afternoon. The scrimmage was the first of several to be held before opening week and gave the staff an opportunity to evaluate athletes on both sides of the ball. The offense pulled out the 36-34 win, scoring in the last period to secure the victory. In the Staff’s scoring system, points are awarded for turnovers, first downs, defensive stops, touchdowns and field goals.
The offense behind the play of quarterbacks Blaine Gautier and Terrance Broadway showed big the play potential that Cajun fans have grown to expect under Coach Hudspeth. Sophomore wide-receiver Jamal Robinson had several big plays during the scrimmage, including a 55 yard run after catch. Robinson displayed big play potential, grabbing another pass to the sidelines with one hand earlier in the scrimmage. Jamal did fumble the ball on one play drawing criticism from the staff.
Another wide-receiver, Bradley Brown started the scoring for the Cajuns offense taking a pass over the middle from Gautier, making several quick moves to avoid defenders and taking it down the near sideline for a touchdown.
Gautier and Broadway also used the tight ends in the passing game, with Pettis, Thompson and Maxwell catching several passes to move the chains.
The offense worked to run the football, rotating four backs in Montrelle Carter, Effrem Reed, Torrey Pierce and Marcus Jackson during the scrimmage. Carter, Reed and Pierce all showed flashes during the scrimmage but it was Jackson that had the better day running hard and getting the tough yards when needed. Jackson is coming back from a knee injury that kept him out of the majority of spring practice. Alonzo Harris was kept out of the scrimmage for precautionary reasons, allowing all four backs more work.
The offensive-line worked without starter Daniel Quave, allowing freshman Greg Siener to work with the first group. The line had its success and struggles at times, especially with the pass rush from the defensive-line.
Cordian Hagans and Justin Hamilton were singled out for their play on the defensive-line, but several others stood out on the pass rush in Delvin Jones, Chris Ringo and Dominique Tovell. On the goal line front of Brandon McCray, Chris Ringo, Justin Hamilton and Codian Hagans made several great stops holding the offense out of the end zone.
The linebacking core played well at times with the first two groups that included Jake Molbert, Dominique Tovell, Le’Marcus Gibson, Trae Johnson, Delvin Jones, Qyen Griffin, Tyren Alexander and Justin Anderson.
The staff was able to get a good look at the defensive backs including some of the younger athletes like T.J. Worthy, Dominick Jones, Jevante Watson, Sean Thomas and Al-Damion Riles. The play of Worthy stood out amongst the younger defensive backs, picking-up a fumble and returning it for a touchdown during the scrimmage. With Tig Barksdale sitting out the scrimmage, Trevence Patt and Wil Burrowes were able to get extra reps in at the safety position.
Special teams didn’t have the best of days, specifically the kicking game. Field goal kicking was erratic at best, while kickoffs were much more consistent. Brett Baer, Carlos Alvarez and Hunter Stover did most of the kicking during the scrimmage.
Darryl Surgent, Montrelle Carter, Harry Peoples and Javone Lawson ran most of the returns back in the return game.
The scrimmage began with the intensity and effort that Coach Hudspeth was looking for after a long week of tough practices. Overall there were too many penalties and I’m sure coach would like to clean that up before the next scrimmage. The staff was able to look at some positions very closely and watch the video of the scrimmage today.
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