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Wyoming Holds First Spring Scrimmage
April 7, 2001 LARAMIE, Wyo. -
Wyoming Head Coach Vic Koenning was all smiles Saturday afternoon following his team's first major scrimmage of spring training. The Cowboys spent over an hour of their Saturday practice scrimmaging, and it was the stuff that good scrimmages are made of, according to the head man. "Those are the kind of scrimmages a coach really likes, Koenning said. "It was spirited, there was good tempo, and enthusiasm was great. There was really a lot of good things happening on both sides of the ball." With first unit pitted against first unit and second teams against seconds, the Cowboys scrimmaged for 60 plays over the field. While there were just three scores on the afternoon--the first unit received two field goals, a 31-yarder from Jarvis Wallum, and a 49-yarder from Justin Graham, and the second unit an 18-yard touchdown run by Derek Armah--the offense did an excellent job of moving the ball in a well-balanced fashion. The Cowboys rushed for 166 yards on 37 carries, an average of just under five yards a carry. Through the air, they gained another 170 yards on a combined total of 13 for 22. "Without looking at the tape, I was really proud of the offensive line," Koenning said. "It's kind of a makeshift outfit because we are holding a lot of guys out in that area. But they did an excellent job overall. I thought our running backs ran very hard, took advantage of the o-line work, and made some people miss them." A couple of young backs led the way for the Cowboys on the afternoon. Redshirt freshman Kit Bradshaw led all backs with 54 yards on nine carries. His longest gain was 15 yards. True freshman Kevin Fulton carried 10 times for 49 yards. Senior veteran Nate Scott had an excellent day with 44 yards on seven carries, while Armah finished with 30 yards on five carries. "Both Bradshaw and Fulton ran hard," Koenning said. "I was very pleased with the way they ran. Nate (Scott) has grown up. He needed to do that as a person and as a player, and he has done both. He needed to get a little tougher, and he has done that too. I thought he ran very well today." Through the air, the Cowboys made some big plays with three pass plays of over 30 yards, including a 35 yarder from Casey Bramlet to Ryan McGuffey, a 34-yarder from J.J. Raterink to Sean Bowman and a 31-yarder from Raterink to Terrance Reese. "Casey did some excellent things, and he made some mistakes," Koenning said. "That certainly is to be expected. I thought J.J (redshirt freshman) also did some excellent things. He is a very intelligent football player who does a good job of making the right reads. On the day, Bramlet was 7 of 15 for 66 yards with the number one unit, and Raterink was 6 of 6 for 99 yards, working with the second unit. The top targets on the ones were McGuffey who caught three for 47 yards, including the 35 yarder, Leonard Jones, five for 34 yards, and Brock Ralph two for 14 yards. On the second team, Reese caught two for 36 yards and Bowman caught one for the 34-yard gain. "I thought the defense rose up when it was backed up," Koenning said. "It did give up some yardage, but not many scores. This unit has a lot of veteran guys, and they play with great emotion." The top tackler on the day was junior defensive end Josh Rollins who produced four tackles, including a tackle for a loss of four yards. Senior linebacker Leo Caires had two tackles, and a pass-break-up. For the second unit, senior safety Pete Merrill had four tackles, including three unassisted stops, and redshirt (return mission) sophomore Garry Gotfredson had three tackles, including one tackle for a loss of five yards.
In the special teams area, Wallum hit on the 31-yard field goal, but missed an extra point. Sophomore Justin Graham hit on a 49 yard field goal. There was no punting, or kicking off during the scrimmage. "I really feel good about the leadership development on this team," Koenning said. "They are a very fun group to be around, and to coach. "The younger guys are starting to step into those leadership roles." Koenning said that he would like to see a little more emotion from the offensive unit. "I'd really like to see them cut loose," He said. "I'm seeing some progress in terms of our techniques and fundamentals. I thought the way our offensive line played today was an illustration of that. It also seems to be helping the secondary and the running backs. I was very pleased with the footwork of our backs today." The Cowboys appeared to come out of the scrimmage without any serious injury. Redshirt tackle David Gough sprained an ankle, and that was the extent of the injuries. Wyoming will resume spring training on Monday, and is scheduled to practice four days next week.
Rushing Statitstics
Net
No. Player Attempts Yards Long TDs
32 Kit Bradshaw II 9 54 15 0
38 Kevin Fulton 10 49 12 0
34 Nate Scott 7 44 11 0
28 Derek Armah 5 30 18 1
45 Antwan Floyd 1 -1 -1 0
31 Marcus Ford 2 -5 -1 0
11 J.J. Raterink 1 -5 -5 0
Totals 35 166 18 1
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