JSU's defense finds a spark
8/25/02

Jackson State held it's final scrimmage Saturday before it takes the field against Southern Miss. The defense showed vast improvement while the offense the moved the ball well but suffered from mental mistakes.

Head coach Robert Hughes is pleased with the overall performance of the team.
 

"We're a half a week away from being ready to play based on what I saw today," Hughes said. "I'm talking about as a whole unit, not just the offense or the defense."

The scrimmage consisted of 90 plays and toke 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete. The defense wrecked havoc on the offense forcing fumbles and applying pressure to the quarterback.

"I thought the defense did a real good job," Hughes said. "They really got after our offense. They put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and we needed that because that's what we're going to see next week."

"It was one of our best performances thus far," first-year JSU defensive coordinator Greg Johnson said. "We showed a lot of promise. We just need to iron out some of the mistakes and go from there."

The first team offense scored two touchdowns on the arms of quarterback Robert Kent. Kent was 14-for-23 for 187 yards. the running game produced good numbers despite starting running back Tarnaka Counslor being held out to give the backups more reps. Fullback Laurence Nolen (7 carries, 34 yards) and backup tailback Brandon Cox (11 carries, 62 yards) got most of the carries.

Offensive coordinator Darrell Asberry was not pleased with the execution of the offense.

"I wasn't too pleased with our performance," Asberry said. "I know we're better than what we showed today. We looked sluggish at the receiver position. We've got to pick it up."