Saturday, August 11, 2012

Vols First Preseason Scrimmage

The Vols held their first scrimmage of fall camp today at Science Hill High School in Johnson City. Dooley said he was pleased with the toughness and effort the players were playing with and said it was good to see. However he was disappointed with much of the administration of the game including some sloppy penalties and substitution issues.

"The offense did a really good job running the football today. And that was good to see. Made lot of big plays running the football."

Vols running backs accounted for 295 yards on the ground. 134 of those belonged to tail back Rajion Neal who had a 68 yard touchdown run. That's good news for a team that finished dead-last in the sec in rushing last year and Dooley, while tempered, was clearly pleased. Several players also noted freshman Que Watson's good game as he had 6 carries for 60 yards.

According to the stat sheet Da'Rick Rogers had 6 grabs for 105 yards including a touchdown while Justin Hunter caught 7 for 47 yards. Cordarrelle Patterson was still limited due to a shoulder injury but Dooley praised him for his toughness. He caught one ball -- a 26 yard gainer.

"I felt like the defense did a pretty good job preventing the big plays on the pass game. Although we threw the ball pretty decently, we didn't generate the yards per attempt that we're tying to get."

Dooley made a point to praise Junior College transfer Daniel McCullers saying he is really making progress, "I think he can help us inside."

The scrimmage also ended on a positive note with Tyler Bray driving down the field in a two minute drill into field goal territory where kicker Michael Palardy capped off a 4-4 day with a 48 yard field goal to win the game.

Dooley called it one of the best scrimmages he's been a part of since he's been here then added, "From a competitive standpoint."

Freshman running back Davante Bourque continues to be absent from the team and it is not clear at this point whether a return is likely.

You can view the scrimmage stats in their entirety here.






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