Notebook: Football spring game

mtraxler

Kilgore’s Catch

R.C. Kilgore made the play of the game when he nearly swiped a pass from Jordan Thomas’ hands and ran it back 42 yards for a first half touchdown.

The sophomore from Cottage Grove, Minn., tipped the ball almost immediately after Thomas let go of it and juggled it between his hands before controlling it and running it to the end zone for the game’s first score.

“All spring, [Kilgore] has had to run past the quarterback because you can’t get close to the quarterback,” said SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier. “So now, he can run full speed at the guy and [Thomas] tries to throw it over him, which he has been able to do and it gets intercepted.

Kilgore’s play was one of four interceptions made by the Jacks defense during the scrimmage.

Dominating Defense

The old adage about the defense being ahead of the offense was evident on Saturday at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

SDSU’s defense racked up seven sacks, caused five turnovers, and forced nine three-and-outs, something that can be attributed to the defensive staff, planting the seed of creating turnovers in practice.

“Our guys said we’re going to take the ball away, we’re going to run to the ball, we’re going to play with energy and every coach did that and coached it every second and you could see the dividends.”

“This year, we’ve been focusing on coming together as a team and just playing together. We have each other’s back out there and we’re picking each other up, no matter what is happening and just feed off each other’s energy,” said defensive back Rodkem Matthews.

Rough Running

The Jackrabbits made it a point to run the football but struggled at times on Saturday.

“I hope we can run the ball better. When you’re committed to the run, you have to be able to run the football and we didn’t run it as well as we could today,” Stiegelmeier said

“Very average on our part today,” said Tyrel Kool, of the offense’s performance. Turnovers will probably be the emphasis when we go back and look at the film. We expect more out of ourselves and we’ll go back to the drawing board and look at what we need to work about.”

Kool had eight carries for 45 yards and led all Jackrabbits rushers.

Connect Four

The 2011 victory marks the fourth straight year that the defense has won the annual spring scrimmage that uses a modified scoring system, but don’t make too much out of the final outcome.

“They say it’s designed for the defense but it’s based on how we play. We’re out here to get better and the defense scored, the offense scored and it benefits both sides,” Matthews said.

“We might have to tweak the scoring system but I don’t think we’ll ever be in the position where we can have two offenses and two defenses,” Stiegelmeier said. “Because 11 guys need to do their job, to have a hodge-podge anything doesn’t help, especially when we’re just trying to get better.”