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Big Plays Highlight Tulsa Scrimmage
4/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 12, 2003
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The offense moved the ball and had some game-breaking plays, and the defense turned turnovers into big plays as the Tulsa football team went through a 62-play scrimmage on Saturday morning at Skelly Stadium.
The scrimmage was a tune-up for Thursday night's Annual Spring Game. Tulsa will practice on Tuesday and Wednesday morning before spring drills culminate with the spring game at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday night.
"I thought the effort was great," said head Coach Steve Kragthorpe. "We got a lot of snaps in today, not as nearly as many as we wanted, but we got the work that we wanted to get in from a fundamental and situational standpoint."
Of the nine offensive touchdowns, all but two resulted in a gain of at least 10 yards for the score. The defense scored its lone touchdown on a 93-yard fumble return, and had another 85-yard interception return.
The Tulsa offense took the opening drive 68 yards to the two-yard line, but a fumble resulted in a 93-yard Sherman Steptoe touchdown return of the recovered fumble. On the next possession, a 70-yard drive, it took three plays for quarterback Tyler Gooch to get the offense in the end zone, as he threw the final 45 yards to Romby Bryant.
On the next two possessions, the Tulsa defense came up with two turnovers, an interception by Clint Rountree and an 85-yard interception return to the offense's 15-yard line by Jeff Thibodeaux.
The offense scored on three straight possessions, each starting from the 50-yard line. The first ended in a 29-yard TD toss from Gooch to running back Larry Lane, the second came on the first play from scrimmage with a 50-yard Uril Parrish run, and the third came on a 10-yard pass from Landon Keopple to tight end John Hameister-Ries.
On possessions starting from the defense's 20-yard line, the Hurricane scored on two of three drives. Both scores coming on second-down runs, including 18 yards by Parrish and 15 yards by Lane. On two possessions from the 10-yard line, Parrish added his third touchdown of the day with a three-yard run, while Shane Davison threw 10 yards to Bryant on first down for a score.
The Tulsa offense had two tries from the four-yard line, getting a 25-yard Brad DeVault field goal and a one-yard James Clancy run.
For the game, Gooch completed 8-of-12 passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. In the absence of Eric Richardson, who sat out the scrimmage with an injury, Lane and Parrish each went over the 100-yard plateau. Lane gained 124 yards and one rushing TD on 14 carries, while Parrish rushed eight times for 109 yards and three touchdowns. The leading receiver was Bryant with four receptions for 72 yards and two TDs.
"The offense moved the ball well, but we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. I thought our defense did a nice job stripping it. That's the name of the game, you can move the ball 99 yards down the field, but if you can't convert or turn the ball over it's all for naught," added Kragthorpe.
"I thought Uril and Larry each had nice days. E-Rich (Eric Richardson) is out for a few days, and both those guys stepped up today. The quarterbacks did a nice job, doing a great job of operating the offense," said Kragthorpe.
RUSHING -- Larry Lane, 14-124-1 TD; Uril Parrish, 8-109-3 TDs; Romby Bryant, 1-19; Tyler Gooch, 2-9; Mark Holata, 2-9; Jermaine Landrum, 1-6; Shane Davison, 1-3; James Clancy, 1-1-1 TD; TOTALS: 30-280-5 TD
PASSING -- Tyler Gooch, 8-of-12 for 128 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT; Landon Keopple, 2-of-2 for 35 yards, 1 TD; James Kilian, 2-of-4 for 22 yards, 1 INT; Shane Davison, 3-of-3 for 17 yards, 1 TD; TOTALS: 15-of-21 for 202 yards-4 TDs, 2 INTs
RECEIVING -- Romby Bryant, 4-72-2 TD; Montiese Culton, 2-30; Larry Lane, 1-29-1 TD; Caleb Blankenship, 2-22; Cory Hathaway, 2-18, John Hameister-Ries, 1-10-1 TD; Richard McQuillar, 1-10; Sean Yoder, 1-9; Mark Holata, 1-2; TOTALS 15-202-4 TDs
