Southern Illinoise University Athletics
SIU completes first fall scrimmage
08/15/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football
By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois football program ran 93 plays in its first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday morning, and head coach Dale Lennon liked what he saw on both sides of the ball after just one week of practices.
"As a coach, you're always looking for that give-and-take," Lennon said. "Today was a very competitive scrimmage, which is what I was hoping for. There are things we need to work on; but considering this is only practice No. 8, we did quite a bit with our offense and our defense. The learning retention is good."
The team ran through a plethora of situations, with the offense starting drives from its own goalline, the 30-yard line, midfield and the opponent 25. The defense got stops on the first three possessions before returning starting quarterback Mark Iannotti led a 70-yard TD drive. Iannotti hit three big passes on the drive, a 16-yarder to Jimmy Jones, an 18-yarder to true freshman Daquan Isom and a 20-yard touchdown to Adam Fuehne.
The offense got big plays in the passing game throughout the scrimmage, completing 20+ yard passes to Fuehne, Darrell James, Kyle Newquist, John Gardner and Jonathan Mixon. Southern's defense was stout against the run, allowing only one rush for more than 12 yards and limiting the offense to less than three yards per rush.
"There's work to be done, but I like what I see in our aggressiveness, how we run to the football," Lennon said. "Our tackling is pretty sharp. All those fundamental skills are there, and that's what you're looking for early on."
Isom's 47 yard of total offense led a trio of true freshmen backs that made an impact, and the two top tacklers in the scrimmage were also true freshmen (Cody Crider and Withney Simon).
"Athletically, there is some talent out there that we were hoping to see," Lennon said. "Some of those young players are going to be able to help us this year. There is some good, young talent that is able to make plays."
Iannotti had the most success from the quarterback spot, throwing for 132 yards on nine completions, including three touchdowns and no interceptions. Sam Straub, who went live, also looked good, completing 65 percent of his passes while rushing for 12 yards and also catching a ball for 16 more.
Southern's specialists were especially impressive. Nick Neidig and Derek Mathewson routinely boomed punts longer than 45 yards, and all three field goal kickers were perfect on the day. Austin Johnson hit a 49-yard field goal and followed it up with a 50-yarder that snuck over the crossbar.
The scrimmage ended the first week of practice for the Salukis. Lennon said the team would focus on adding situations, like the two- and four-minute offenses, in the coming week before the team's second scrimmage next Saturday.
"We had some teaching moments," Lennon said. "We'll be able to cover some things we need to get better at. Then, it's just a matter of putting the whole package in for next week."
NOTES: Quarterback Matt McIntosh and running back Aaron Stanton sat out the scrimmage due to minor injuries...All three quarterbacks had completion percentages over 50 percent, with the team going a combined 29-for-47 (62 percent)...19 players caught at least one pass and 11 players had at least one rush.
