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Offense sputters, defense dominates in scrimmage
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MATT HEISTAND
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By UA sophomore running back Clarence Farmer carries the ball during an interquad scrimmage at Arizona Stadium on Saturday. Farmer has been named this season's starter in the backfield.
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Monday August 20, 2001 |
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Offense shows lack of 'polish' in scrimmage
If Saturday night's "Fan Appreciation Night" and intersquad scrimmage showed 3,200 UA football fans anything, it's that change doesn't happen overnight, or at least over a summer.
The defense was dominant in the 90-minute scrimmage, tallying nine sacks and three interceptions, making the first fall scrimmage under new head coach John Mackovic look quite a bit like the "Red-Blue" scrimmages from the Dick Tomey era.
"It was sloppy, to say the least," Mackovic said of the team's offensive performance. "It was as poorly as we've performed all fall on offense."
While the offense didn't perform up to Mackovic's expectations, two Wildcats managed to stand out despite the lackluster showing.
Sophomore running back Clarence Farmer ran the ball eight times for 104 yards and a touchdown while junior quarterback Jason Johnson, who put up less-than-overwhelming numbers (7-14 passing for 95 yards with an interception), showed the poise in the pocket that made him Mackovic's pick as the leader of the offense coming out of fall camp.
Despite Johnson's performance, Mackovic said the junior and UA's four other quarterbacks didn't perform to their capabilities.
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MATT HEISTAND
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UA junior quarterback Jason Johnson steps back to deliver a pass while junior defensive tackle Young Thompson attempts to block the attempt during Saturday's inter-squad scrimmage at Arizona Stadium. Johnson has been named the starting quarterback for the Wildcats this season.
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"I'm disappointed," Mackovic said. "They didn't throw the ball where they should. They didn't get off the ball fast enough. They were holding the ball too long and throwing interceptions. It was a real poor performance."
"Farmer showed us he's a big-play back," he continued. "But the defense missed some tackles and gave up some runs. Their pursuit was not very good."
Despite his individual success, Farmer said the offense's first public performance of the fall didn't go as well as expected.
"To tell the truth, I'm not feeling too good," Farmer said. "The offense as a whole didn't execute tonight. Tonight I did pretty good, but as an offense we didn't do very good."
Freshman running back Mike Bell also showed signs of the talent that propelled him to Arizona High School Player of the Year honors in 2000 by scoring two touchdowns, the first coming off a fake reverse that resulted in a 17-yard score.
Mackovic said the most frustrating aspect of the offense's performance was penalties, false starts in particular. Five of the offense's seven penalties came from early movement on the line, one coming after Farmer made a 30-yard run to bring the offense to the 5-yard line, only to have the penalty bring them back five yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, junior Clay Hardt collected an interception on the third play of the scrimmage and nearly picked off another shortly thereafter. Junior free safety Jarvie Worcester and junior linebacker Lance Briggs came up with the two other picks of the night.
"We're getting there," senior defensive tackle Keoni Fraser said. "There are still some things we need to work on, but we're coming along. We're progressing every day. And we have a pretty good idea of where we're at and where we need to go."
"They made some plays," Mackovic said. "Our tackling improved, but we're still a long ways away. We gave up some (long) runs."
Mackovic said the team wasn't prepared for the beginning of the season, but also acknowledged there wasn't much time left before the first game of the season against San Diego State Aug. 30.
"They're showing progress," he said. "I won't say we took a step backward, but we showed that we are not ready to really polish and get ready to play. That last six or seven days before we play (San Diego State) will be intense work."
Junior wide receiver Bobby Wade agreed that it will be hard work for the Wildcats to get ready for the season opener.
"The only way to get this new offense down is to keep working at it every day. We want to have it mastered before the first game. It probably won't happen that way, but we want to be as close as possible. We won't know where we're at until we play that first game."
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