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| Luke Barnes delivers a pass as Tyler Roberts applies pressure (Danny Tindell/Dothan Eagle) |
BY DREW CHAMPLIN
dchamplin@dothaneagle.com
TROY – Troy’s offense came out on a mission for Saturday’s T-Day scrimmage, and it paid off early.
The first five possessions of the scrimmage resulted in touchdowns – four by the offense before safety Brynden Trawick returned an interception 35 yards for a score.
Starting quarterback Corey Robinson led the offense against the first team defense on two touchdown drives – runs of 35 and 3 yards from senior D.J. Taylor. Backups Dallas Tidwell, Deon Anthony and Luke Barnes had their moments as well.
On the second series, Anthony threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Haynie, who got open on the left side. On the fourth series, Dallas Tidwell escaped pressure on a third down and hit Chris Williams, who then broke free for a 65-yard touchdown reception.
“It’s always good to get going early,” Robinson said. “It’s something we haven’t done in the past and something we’ve harped on in this offseason. Getting started early is a key to having good confidence, so hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”
Robinson did throw the interception to Trawick, but he scored on his own 17-yard run off a quarterback zone read play late in the scrimmage. Trawick led the Sun Belt with 123 tackles last year, but didn’t have any interceptions.
“I saw the tight end come across on the drag,” Trawick said. “I covered it, the quarterback threw it and I took it in for the touchdown. Personally, I (wouldn’t) have thrown it, but I’m glad he did throw it.”
The defense settled down after that, not giving up any more first-half scores. In the second half, Robinson had his touchdown run, Chris Anderson scored on a 4-yard run and Barnes hit Bryan Holmes on a wheel route to the right for a 20-yard touchdown.
“We just had to wake up,” Trawick said. “It started off real rough. We just had to wake up, get our blood flowing, get a couple of hits in and after the first couple of series, we settled down and started playing defense.”
Taylor, who led all rushers with 110 yards on eight carries, said the offense got a nice challenge from offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield and hit the ground running.
“We came out fired up,” Taylor said. “We had a little pep talk before the game. From there, the energy kept getting higher and higher and we continued to improve during the game.”
Robinson led the quarterbacks, going 15-of-22 for 185 yards and an interception. Tidwell, a 6-foot-7 redshirt freshman, hit 6-of-7 passes for 96 yards. Barnes, another redshirt freshman, hit 4-of-5 for 50 yards and Anthony, a junior college transfer, was 2-of-3 for 31 yards.
Along with Taylor, Chris Anderson ran 11 times for 51 yards, Shawn Southward ran 10 times for 63 yards and Daron White ran for 34 yards on seven carries with the second unit. The receiver stats were spread out. Chandler Worthy had two catches for 64 yards, Eric Thomas had four for 48, Haynie had four for 61 and Jamel Johnson had two for 30 yards, to name a few.
It was only Troy’s seventh spring practice, so there is still much to implement and learn.Troy has a scrimmage Friday at 6 p.m. CST at Central High School in Phenix City. Troy’s final practice, a scrimmage, is set for April 14 inTroy.
“We’re pretty decent on offense when all those elements are there,”Troyhead coach Larry Blakeney said.
“The running backs ran pretty good, I thought. We blocked pretty good up front. We had a couple of schemes where we got them sometimes.
“There were a lot of good things on defense. They had a big play on the interception for a touchdown, which’ll win a game for you.”
Stephens moves to OL: Tommy Stephens, a redshirt sophomore from Marianna, Fla., has moved from defensive line to offensive line.
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