Scrimmage play affords offense chance to test out new scheme
By Jason Feder
April 22, 2007 9:23 p.m.
Heading into the final week of spring practice, the focus of the football team has shifted toward the details. During scrimmage play on Saturday, the team practiced it’s red-zone offense and gave special teams some work on full-speed punts.
The Bruins are instituting a new offensive scheme under offensive coordinator Jay Norvell and red-zone efficiency will be an area that will undergo changes.
Last season, the Bruins scored only 19 touchdowns on 45 opportunities within the opponent’s 20-yard line as former kicker Justin Medlock hit 20 field goals from that distance.
“Offensively, that wasn’t a very productive area for us last year,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “We kicked a lot of field goals but we didn’t have enough touchdowns. So we’ll spend a lot of time (in the red zone) just to get used to it.”
On Saturday, the offense in the red-zone was consistently shifting formations on the line and implemented some irregular plays, including a Ben Olson naked bootleg for seven yards on fourth-and-short.
With the exception of a 33-yard Pat Cowan pass to Jamil Turner, the offense struggled until it moved to the defense’s 20-yard line. In the red zone, they had more success. Olson finished with 28 yards and two touchdowns on 4-of-9 passing. Cowan, McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Osaar Rasshan finished a combined 2-for-15 for 40 yards.
With only five healthy receivers, Terrence Austin was the main target for the quarterbacks, with at least six passes thrown his way.
“Technically I’m a starter now,” Austin said. “Considering that two of the guys above me are down and I’m just going to go from there.”
“We’re missing our top three or four receivers right now,” Dorrell said. “We’re trying to hang on and finish this last week. … It’s good for the young players. It’s good for the guys that are healthy that haven’t had time in terms of these kinds of reps.”
NO MORE RED JERSEYS: The quarterbacks shed their usual red jerseys for practice and got hit along with everybody else.
“You saw them get knocked out of bounds,” Dorrell said. “That’s real ball. That’s how it is on Saturdays, so we’ll probably do a little more like this next week with our spring game … putting them in regular jerseys and letting them get hit a little bit. I think it’s good just to see how they react and play given those circumstances.”
BRUINS GETTING ANTSY: During the scrimmage, there were a few scuffles between offense and defense, drawing penalties. Dorrell was not worried about the on-field frays.
“That’s part of the game, but we got to understand that we can’t waste a lot of time doing our little theatrics,” Dorrell said. “You got to get back in the huddle and play. … I had a little chitchat with them about how we waste a lot of time doing that. We need to worry about getting better and working hard on the next play.”
