MOBILE, Ala. — Running back Demetre Baker scored two touchdowns as South Alabama held its first spring scrimmage Saturday, while the Jaguars’ defense held the offense to under three yards per play in front of more than 200 visiting high school juniors.
The visitors, prospects on the Jaguars’ recruiting radar for the upcoming class, toured campus and the football facilities and watched the scrimmage.
First-Team Offense Scores Twice
On the first scoring drive, quarterback C.J. Bennett completed 3 of 4 passes, all to Bryant Lavender, for gains of 14, 6 and 25 yards. The last catch moved the ball inside the 10-yard line, and Baker finished the drive with a touchdown run. Terrance Timmons added a 14-yard run on the possession.
Bennett opened the second scoring drive with an 11-yard completion to Anthony Ingram. Facing third-and-1, he found Kennedy Helms for a 30-yard gain, setting up Baker’s second touchdown.
Bennett finished 11 of 17 for 114 yards and ran twice for 9 yards. Baker led the running backs with 42 yards on nine carries.
Fetner Leads Second Unit
Trey Fetner completed 4 of 7 passes for 60 yards while working with the first- and second-team offenses. He led the second team on an 11-play, 55-yard touchdown drive, completing two passes to Wes Saxton to move inside the 30. Baker ran four straight times to reach the 2-yard line, and after a false start pushed the offense back, Fetner threw a touchdown pass to Jereme Jones just inside the end zone on the right side.
“Actually, that wasn’t part of my progression. I saw a hole real quick, and I tried to get it in there. It was a mistake, but a good one, so we’ll take it,” Fetner said. “I did a decent job today, but the line and receivers did a great job. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, though.”
Michel Chapuseaux kicked a 45-yard field goal, and Julien Valentin scored on a 1-yard run late in the scrimmage to cap an 11-play, 40-yard drive by the third-team offense.
Lavender led the receivers with five catches for 57 yards. Ingram had two receptions for 39 yards, and Saxton caught two for 25.
Defense Stands Out
The defense allowed 306 yards on 109 plays. Ben Giles had nine tackles and a pass breakup that was nearly an interception. Charles Harris and Desmond LaVelle each made six tackles, and Randon Carnathan had five. Will Thompson recorded 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks, and Pat Moore had 4.5 tackles for loss and four sacks. Ceasare Johnson added five tackles and 1.5 sacks. Eddy Cabrera produced the only takeaway with a fumble recovery late in the scrimmage.
Coaches Weigh In
Baker said he is still learning the new offense, which features fewer power-I formations.
“I’m excited about the new offense,” Baker said. “I think I’ve still got a lot of things to work on, definitely some reads now that we are not running a lot of power-I. I never will be pleased, though, because I think that every day I can come out here and get a little bit better, run a little harder, make better cuts and read my blocks better.”
“I thought Demetre had a good day running the ball,” head coach Joey Jones said. “He ran real powerful today, he didn’t have any extremely long runs, but he had a lot of five- and 10-yard runs, fighting for tough yards.”
Jones said the offense is ahead of where he expected. “I believe we are much further along than I thought we would be at this point with the operation of the offense, because the kids have bought in and the staff has done a tremendous job coaching it,” he said. “When they go out on the field they understand what it going on, but it is going so fast they make a mistake or two. But I’m real pleased, because it puts a lot of pressure on the defense when you snap the ball extremely fast.”
He also pointed to a gap in depth between the two sides. “With the ones on both sides of the ball it was a back-and-forth slugfest. What I see when I look at the offense and defense is a lot more depth on defense. When you put the twos out there there is not a lot of change, but when you put the twos out on offense there is. One of the things we have to work on is our depth offensively.”
Defensive coordinator Bill Clark said the scrimmage revealed both strengths and areas to improve. “We saw a lot of good things, and we saw some things we have to get better at,” he said. “Sometimes that tempo really shows you some things. A lot of guys did a lot of good things, although you won’t know that exactly until you see the film, but we had some guys on the twos who really looked good. That depth chart may be changing next week.”
Offensive coordinator Robert Matthews pointed to penalties. “I saw some good things, though I thought we made too many pre-snap penalty mistakes,” he said. “We had some false starts that are unacceptable. We are getting a lot of guys reps, we had seven quarterbacks take snaps today, which makes it hard sometimes with continuance but at the same time its good for our evaluations.”
Up Next
“Today was a very big day regarding our depth chart where those guys could prove themselves,” Jones said. “After this Thursday, the bulk of spring training will be over.”
South Alabama has three more practices before spring break: a 4 p.m. session in shorts Sunday, a practice in shells Tuesday and a second scrimmage in full pads Thursday.
