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Tulsa Concludes Spring Drills With Impressive Outing
4/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 15, 2005
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Tulsa football team completed its spring drills with the Annual Spring Game Friday night in front of 2,400 fans at Skelly Stadium.
The scrimmage consisted of six possessions starting from the offense's 35-yard line, the 50-yard line and the 20-yard line and two possessions from the 10-yard line. The offense scored eight touchdowns in the game, with seven coming on the ground and just one passing TD.
"It was a great night. I was extremely pleased with the effort tonight, and I thought both sides of the ball performed well," said Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe. "It was a clean practice. We minimized our penalties, had no turnovers and were crisp. Through spring drills I wanted to see improvement from scrimmage one to scrimmage two, and from scrimmage two to tonight. We were able to do that."
It was not until the offenses' seventh possession that a touchdown was scored. The defense limited the offense to field goals of 26 and 22 yards in the first six series, as all of those possessions began at the offense's 35-yard line. The offense scored on 10 of its final 14 series, including eight TDs and two field goals.
For the game, David Johnson completed 10-of-15 passes for 117 yards and had the lone touchdown pass of the night. Paul Smith had 10 completions in 18 attempts for 97 yards. Junior transfer Courtney Tennial led the ground attack with 75 yards on nine carries. Tennial, Brandon Diles and Tarrion Adams each had two rushing touchdowns.
Commenting on the quarterback play, Kragthorpe said " They both played cleanly tonight and did a great job of taking care of the football. Paul made good decisions tonight, and David stayed in the pocket and also made solid decisions."
Defensively, Kedrick Alexander had a game-high eight tackles, while Chris Chamberlain had seven stops, including three sacks. Randy Duncan also added seven tackles.
The offense had its first score on the second series as Brad DeVault connected on a 26-yard field goal, as the defense halted the drive at the eight-yard line to force the field goal. Four series later, the offense marched to the five-yard line, but once again the defense stiffened, holding the offense to a 22-yard Jarod Tracy field goal.
On the next series, Smith led the offense on a 50-yard drive as Adams ran in from four yards out for the first touchdown. Adams added a one-yard TD run, after a Johnson 48-yard pass to Landon Keopple took the Hurricane offense to the two-yard line. Two possessions later, the first starting from the 20-yard line, Brandon Diles had a one-yard run for the touchdown that was setup by a 24-yard pass from Smith to Ashlan Davis. That touchdown was the first of eight straight scores for the offense. A 42-=yard field goal by Tracy and a 24-yarder by DeVault followed.
The offense closed out the scrimmage with five straight touchdowns, three with Johnson at quarterback and two with Smith calling the signals. On the first, Tennial used four carries to cover the 20 yards as he plunged in from one-yard out for the score. A series later, Johnson used just one play, a 20-yard touchdown toss to Charles Ramsey.
It was then Smith's turn to direct the offense. He led Tulsa on a 20-yard drive with Cauvey Jackson scoring from eight yards out. On the next series, starting from the 10-yard line, Diles ran in for his second score of the game, this time from four yards out. The final TD came with Johnson under center and Tennial scored his second TD of the game oin a four-yard run.
Tulsa will open the 2005 football season on Thursday night, September 1, against Minnesota in front of a national television audience on ESPN. Game time is 9:00 p.m. Season tickets are now available by calling 918-631-GoTU (4688) or online at www.tulsahurricane.com.
SCORING SUMMARY Brad DeVault 26-yard field goal [Johnson at QB] Jarod Tracy 22-yard field goal [Smith at QB] Tarrion Adams 4-yard run (Brad DeVault PAT Good) [Smith at QB] Tarrion Adams 1-yard run (Matt Schultz PAT Good) [Johnson at QB] Brandon Diles 1-yard run (Brad DeVault PAT Good) [Smith at QB] Jarod Tracy 42-yard field goal [Johnson at QB] Brad DeVault 24-yard field goal [Smith at QB] Courtney Tennial 1-yard run (Matt Schultz PAT Good) [Johnson at QB] David Johnson 20-yard pass to Charles Ramsey (Brad DeVault PAT Good) [Johnson at QB] Cauvey Jackson 8-yard run (Jarod Tracy PAT Good) [Smith at QB] Brandon Diles 4-yard run (Jarod Tracy PAT Good) [Smith at QB] Courtney Tennial 4-yard run (Matt Schultz PAT Good) [Johnson at QB]RUSHING Courtney Tennial, 9-75-2 TD Brandon Diles, 7-12-2 TD Tarrion Adams, 11-29-2 TD Roderick Foster, 2-13 Paul Smith, 3/-9 David Johnson, 3/-18 Ashlan Davis, 1-8 Cauvey Jackson, 3-11-1 TD Aaron Johnson, 5-30 Chris Boone, 1-0 Totals: 45-151-7 TD
PASSING Paul Smith, 10-of-18 for 97 yards David Johnson, 10-of-15 for 117 yards, 1 TD Totals: 20-of-33 for 214 yards, 1 TD
RECEIVING Garrett Mills, 2-23 Ashlan Davis, 4-49 Landon Keopple, 1-48 Ted Curtis, 2-16 Donnie Johnson, 3-24 Courtney Tennial, 2/-8 Roland Garrett, 1-7 Tarrion Adams, 1/-8 Monroe Nichols, 1-10 Charles Ramsey, 2-49-1 TD Roderick Foster, 1-4 Totals: 20-214-1 TD
FIELD GOALS Brad DeVault 1-1 (25 made; 24 made) Jarod Tracy 2-2 (22 made; 42 made)
ATTENDANCE: 2,400
