Tulsa Football Team Holds First Spring Scrimmage

3/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football

Defensive end Kinny Spotwood had two quarterback sacks in Thursday nights scrimmage.

March 10, 2006

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Tulsa football team had its first major scrimmage of the spring on Thursday night under lights of Skelly Stadium, as the Hurricane completed its first seven days of spring drills before taking a week off for spring break.

The Golden Hurricane finished its 80 play scrimmage at 11:10 Thursday night. Tulsa has conducted most of its spring practices in the late evening under the lights.

In a scrimmage that saw the offense start from their own 35-yard line six times, the 50-yard line four times, the 20-yard line five times and twice from the four-yard line, the offense scored four touchdowns, two rushing and two passing, as well as converting 3-of-4 field goals.

The Hurricane defense forced four turnovers,, including three fumbles and one interception. The defensive unit also had nine stops for lost yardage, including three sacks as junior end Kinny Spotwood had two of the sacks covering 19 yards in lost yardage.

"I thought the scrimmage went very good. We had good tempo. We saw a lot of good things for just being out on the field for seven days," said Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe. "The defense performed well. They did a good job of pressuring the quarterback as well as doing a good job in third down situations."

The offense marched 64 yards down field on the first possession as a Paul Smith 16-yard pass to senior Idris Moss and runs of 11 yards by Smith and 19 yards by sophomore Tarrion Adams were the big plays in the drive. However, the defense stopped the offense on third and goal at the one-yard line to force the first of three Jarod Tracy field goals.

The Tulsa defense would then force the offense to go three-and-out on five of the next six possessions, including stopping one drive with a forced fumble and recovery.

The offense broke that string of defensive successes by traveling 48 yards on the next possession, but settling on a Tracy 19-yard field goal. Moss had a highlight reel run that gained 25 yards for the Hurricane offense on the drive. On the next two possessions, senior Bobby Blackshire intercepted a Smith pass to end one offensive drive and a fumble ended another offensive possession.

The offensive unit scored three TDs while starting from the defenses 20-yard line, and one on goal line offense from the four-yard line. The first of those TDs came on a four-yard run by sophomore Aaron Johnson, followed by a 29-yard pass to red-shirt freshman Jesse Meyer, a six-yard toss from sophomore David Johnson to junior Ted Curtis and a one-yard run by senior Brandon Diles.

Tracy's field goals covered 18, 19 and 33 yards.

For the game, the offense completed 13-of-25 passes for 114 yards, two TDs and one interception, while rushing for 159 yards and two TDs for a 3.7-yard average per carry. Smith completed 7-of-17 passes for 76 yards and one TD, while Johnson threw for 38 yards and one TD on 6-of-8 passing. Meyer led the receiving corps with three catches for 44 yards and one touchdown, and Diles had a high game of 40 yards rushing and one TD on six carries.

Tulsa will be back on the practice field on Tuesday, March 21 after taking off next week during the school's spring break.