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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Defense Shines During Latest Football Scrimmage
4/9/2004 | Football
April 9, 2004
OXFORD, Miss. - It was a day for the defense here Friday morning in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium as the Ole Miss Rebels completed another week of spring football drills with a two-hour scrimmage which included more than 130 snaps.
Sophomore defensive back Charles Clark returned a Vashon Pearson fumble 75 yards for one touchdown and defensive back Travis Johnson had two pass interceptions as he picked off Ethan Flat in the end zone and later returned a Micheal Spurlock pass 31 yards to highlight the defensive effort.
Linebacker Patrick Willis recovered a Flatt fumble and had one quarterback sack, and Clark also had two QB sacks of Robert Lane on back-to-back plays early in the scrimmage. Defensive back Bryan Brown added two QB sacks, while defensive linemen Brandon Jenkins and Jayme Mitchell each had a sack. The Rebel defense had 19 tackles for minus yardage.
"I am proud of our defense," Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe said. "In a week's time, there was a major difference in how we played defense and approached it - in the secondary, up front, and everywhere."
Cutcliffe said he saw a lot of positive things during the scrimmage, but expressed disappointment with the offensive execution.
"Offensively, the execution wasn't very good for most of the day," he said. "Vashon Pearson continues to run the ball the way we want him to, but the most disappointing thing was turning the ball over in the scoring zone. We also had too many dropped passes."
Spurlock completed 11 of 21 passes for 111 yards, Flatt was 10 of 23 for 71 yards, and Lane completed five of 15 attempts for 71 yards. Flatt completed a nine-yard TD pass to tight end Robert Hough and Lane had a 52-yard completion to Hough.
Matt Pierce led the wide receivers with five receptions for 44 yards. Mike Espy caught four passes for 60 yards and Mario Hill pulled in four for 28 yards. Hough's two receptions were good for a total of 61 yards. Pearson was the leading rusher with 41 yards on 11 carries.
The Rebels were perfect when it came to field goal and extra point attempts. Jonathan Nichols, last year's Lou Groza Award winner as the nation's top kicker, connected on field goals of 42, 45, and 30 yards. Ian Turner had field goals of 39, 39, and 45 yards. Nichols and Turner each had one extra point.
In the punting department, Wesley Bryan averaged 41.8 yards on six punts and Cody Ridgeway had a 33.5 average on four punts.
Ole Miss will continue spring drills next week with two practices. Spring workouts will conclude here Saturday, April 17, with the Red-Blue Game, set for 1:00 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field.
