Jaguars Hold First Scrimmage At St. Paul’s
Head coach Joey Jones speaks to his team after their first scrimmage of preseason camp at St. Paul’s Episcopal School on Saturday, August 15, 2014.
After a short practice on Friday, the Jaguars traveled to St. Paul’s Episcopal School’s E.E. Delaney Field for their first scrimmage of preseason camp.
Brandon Bridge was 10-of-18 for 131 yards and three touchdowns, Hunter Vaughn went 6-of-9 for 173 yards and two touchdowns and Matt Floyd went 5-of-7 for 42 yards.
T.J. Glover, who has moved back to running from wide receiver, carried seven times for 64 yards and a touchdown, Terrance Timmons rushed 10 times for 38 yards and two touchdowns, Jay Jones has seven carries for 26 yards and a touchdown, Matt Floyd rushed four times for 22 yards, Xavier Johnson rushed seven times for 21 yards and Hunter Vaughn rushed three times for 20 yards.
Wes Saxton caught three passes for 53 yards and a touchdown, Shavarez Smith caught three as well for 24 yards and a touchdown, T.J. Glover caught two for 59 yards and a touchdown and Terrance Timmons caught two for 28 yards.
Defensively Roman Buchanan led the way with five tackles, four of them solo. Davin Hawkins, Steffon Fuller, Antonio Carter, Desmond LaVelle, and Andrew Philon all also had five total tackles as well.
Grant McLaurin went 4-for-4 kicking field goals with a long of 52 yards that hit the crossbar and bounced through the uprights. Aleem Sunanon went 2-for-4 with a long of 42.
Corliss Waitman punted twice for an average of 52.0 yards per punt. Brandon KcKee punted twice for an average of 46.0 yards per punt.
During the hour-and-a-half scrimmage the offense ran 81 plays and gained 562 yards, an average of 6.94 yards per snap.
“When you look at a scrimmage like this from my side, I want both of them [offense and defense] to play well, and that’s really not possible,” head coach Joey Jones stated after the scrimmage. “Somebody is going to play better. I don’t get into who won, I look at individual performances. What we needed to do was come here to St. Paul’s and come to a different atmosphere, get our kids used to playing on a different field.”
It was a point he also echoed in his post-scrimmage talk with the team. He wanted to get his team away from the friendly confines of the Jaguar Practice Facility and into a place that was unknown to them. They have to learn to keep their focus and play with the same intensity they do at home as they do away, which was the point of the practice at St. Paul’s.
Jones said the offense executed pretty well for a first scrimmage but the defense gave up too many big plays. “You can’t give up big plays and win ballgames. We’re going to watch that on film and correct it before next week. Coach [Travis] Pearson was talking to the players about that, he will get that corrected.”
The coaching staff also got lots of reps to a number of quarterbacks they were trying to get to understand different game-like situations.
The Jags will took Sunday off and will return to practice on Monday morning. “Next week will be really big, our guys understand that playing time is on the line,” Jones explained about the upcoming week of practice. “I don’t care who the mommas or the daddies are, the best players are going to play. That’s just the way it works.”
The play of the day came from none other than Jereme Jones. On the first-team’s second series of the scrimmage, he hauled in a one-handed touchdown reception from Brandon Bridge for the first points of the scrimmage.
Another big play was T.J. Glover taking a swing pass into the flat for a 44-yard touchdown. Tony Ray Parnell caught a 35-yard touchdown from Vaughn. He racked up 123 all-purpose yards for the day.