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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Offensive Highlights First Scrimmage for Rebels
6/21/1999 | Football
March 28, 1998
OXFORD, Miss. -- Sophomore quarterback Romaro Miller completed 31 of 48 passes for 569 yards and seven touchdowns here Saturday to highlight the first major spring football scrimmage for the Ole Miss Rebels.
Miller had TD strikes of 40 and 20 yards to Ken Lucas, 55 and 14 yards to Jason Clingan, five yards to Rufus French, 40 yards to Cory Peterson, and 40 yards to Joe Gunn. During one stretch of the scrimmage, Miller had three consecutive passes go for 40 yard TDs.
"We wanted to make sure Romaro got as many snaps as possible," Tuberville said. Junior quarterback Jeff Smith saw limited action as he completed five of 11 passes for another 104 yards.
"When we start moving the ball on a regular scrimmage, up and down the field, we'll use some of the younger guys at quarterback, Tuberville said. "Right now we felt Romaro needed to get more reps, especially since he's learning the checks. He's still learning the offense, and that means getting into the right play at the right time.".
While the offense dominated the first scrimmage, Tuberville still had good words for the defense. "Our tackling can improve, but the effort was good. We limited our defense to what they could do today," he said. "We did very little other than the blitz drill and played mostly base defense and base coverage.
"We wanted to make sure we worked on effort and little things we've talked about the last five days. Execution looked good on defense as compared to what we've had the first week of spring practice.
"Defensively, we gave up too many big plays, but we got excellent effort out of our front, especially Comone Fisher and Kendrick Clancy. Those two guys have really stepped it up and it looks like they are fighting for a starting position.
"Romaro threw the ball well, our offensive line blocked well, our running backs held on to the ball and ran well. We had some big plays on offense and our receivers caught the big play versus the blitz.
"The kicking game was also very encouraging. We made all but one or two field goals," Tuberville added.
Sophomore Deuce McAllister rushed for 53 yards on seven carries, senior Alishma Alexander had 38 yards on eight carries and Gunn had 37 yards on five carries. Senior Tony Cannion had a four yard TD run.
Lucas had six receptions for 130 yards and two TDs and Clingan caught six passes for 115 yards and two scores to lead the receivers. Robert Gates recovered a fumble for the defense.
"We have a long ways to go, but have a lot of energy and lot of spirit," he said. "Since we're ahead of schedule, we'll try to take five days off. We're missing four or five guys that need some practice time. After seeing just how this scrimmage looked, our next practice probably won't be until Thursday.".
Tuberville also announced Saturday that senior H-Back Robert Reed has been suspended for the remainder of the spring due to disciplinary and academic reasons.
"We'll make a decision at the end of the year on his future here at Ole Miss," Tuberville said.
