Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"August 30, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
August
30, 2002
Saturday’s football scrimmages at Michie Stadium may have appeared disjointed to fans in attendance, but the Black Knights accomplished exactly what the coaching staff had in mind with just two weeks remaining before the team’s season opener versus Holy Cross.
With his squad’s first and second units beginning to take shape, head coach Todd Berry focused his club on situational play during the first hour, then utilized the second hour to evaluate many of his younger players in a scrimmage setting.
"They were good scrimmages from a coaching standpoint," Berry explained afterward. "We got the things done that (the coaches) wanted to get done. I wanted the coaches to back away and find out if our players were communicating on the field. It makes for a bit of a disjointed scrimmage from a fan’s standpoint, but from a coach’s perspective it was great."
Berry added, "We held out a lot of players today, because we don’t need to see a lot of them on the field right now. That allowed us to get a long look at some of the other young men in our program."
Berry was pleased with the play of quarterbacks Reggie Nevels and Zac Dahman, who alternated series under center during the entire situational scrimmage.
"From a situational standpoint, the quarterbacks are impacted more than any position on the field. I thought they responded well today."
Dahman, a freshman, tossed a pair of touchdowns, connecting with classmate Jacob Murphy on a 39-yard score on a 4th-and-4 play, before tossing a quick 5-yard TD pass to Lamar Mason during a goal line situation. Murphy was particularly impressive throughout, combining to haul in seven passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns during both scrimmages.
"Jacob has had a good preseason camp," Berry offered. "We played him at a different (split end) position today; one that he was not necessarily comfortable at. But he still knew what he was doing and made some big plays. He is going to be a good player for us."
Berry also lauded the play of his team’s defense, which accounted for four interceptions on the day.
Sophomore free safety Lucius Weaver highlighted those efforts, forcing one fumble, recovering another and returning an interception 52 yards for a touchdown. Sophomore cornerback Delente Brewer and plebes Rob Davis and Dhyan Tarver accounted for the other pickoffs, the latter two coming during the second scrimmage.
"I continue to be impressed with our first group of defensive players," Berry added. "We have some guys that can make big plays. (Inside linebacker) Greg Washington can cover an awful lot of field and I thought Clarence Holmes and Lucius Weaver had good scrimmages.
"Overall I’ve been very pleased with the production of the younger players in the program. We haven’t held anything back from them. The younger players that we’re counting on to contribute knew what they were doing out there today and that was good to see. We will get some great teaching material out of today’s scrimmages."
While Army will hold informal scrimmage sessions during practice this next week, Saturday marked the last of the club’s "official" preseason scrimmages. Berry couldn’t be more pleased with the progress of his youthful club.
"We’ve done an awful lot of hitting this preseason, more than I’ve ever done before," Army’s third-year mentor added. "I’m very pleased with where we’re at. We’ve had less injuries because we are a much more athletic team, and we’ve had some very physical play out there."