That came two days after the offense controlled a mini-scrimmage focused on red zone drills.
“It was as hot as it’s been out here in a while, I thought we fought through that pretty well,” Hilltopper head coach David Elson said. “We weren’t real focused early defensively on execution, but they responded to adversity and got better as the scrimmage went along. There were pluses and minuses on both sides of the ball.”
The first-team defense surrendered one first down on the first two series before Justin Haddix led the unit on a six-play, 55-yard march that resulted in an 18-yard scoring completion to Jake Gaebler. Tyrell Hayden opened the possession with an 18-yard carry down the left side, and he added a 13-yard reception on 4th-and-4 from the defense’s 31-yard line one play before the touchdown. Haddix completed 3-of-4 passes on the drive for 35 yards.
On its last possession of the day, Haddix connected with Rannen Roberson for 11 yards to set up a 45-yard Chris James field goal.
Haddix finished 6-of-11 passing for 54 yards, with Roberson pacing all receivers with three catches for 23 yards and Gaebler adding 27 yards on two receptions. Hayden recorded 19 yards on four carries, and 32 all-purpose yards including his lone catch.
“It was tough to get a read on our offense today because we wanted to give Lerron time off and see some of the other guys,” Elson said. “With Curtis Hamilton out today, Justin really looked for Jake and Rannen more — we really are developing some depth in our receiving corps, which will help us be more balanced offensively.”
Brad Cloud paced the first-team defense with four stops, and Jon Hedges collected three tackles. Dennis Mitchell posted two stops, while both he and Marion Rumph broke up Haddix pass attempts.
The second-team defense gave up just two first downs on four drives during the mini-scrimmage.
K.J. Black led the third-team offense to a touchdown on the last possession of the afternoon, completing 2-of-3 passes for 24 yards. Philip Bates carried three times for 16 yards and added a 15-yard reception on 3rd-and-1 to set up Black’s scoring toss to Alex Nance from 9 yards out.
The drive covered 40 yards in six plays.
Jacob Davis had five total stops to pace the second- and third-team defenses, with Clint Mitchell posting four tackles.
WKU returns to action Friday with workouts at 8:20 a.m. (CDT) and 6:40 p.m. The first full scrimmage of preseason camp is set to take place at Smith Stadium at 9 a.m. Saturday.
“We will put the team in a lot of normal game situations and continue to focus on our execution,” said Elson. “It’s the biggest scrimmage we have this month, so there will be a chance to get more reps and to see how guys play towards the end with more snaps. They will have to adapt to different game situations, downs and distances and field positions, and we will also go ahead and script some specific drills.”
