The following is from the student newspaper (The Herald) at stAte:
spring game
Members of the Indian football team celebrate during the annual spring football scrimmage Saturday at Indian Stadium.
April 19, 2004
By Ross Lloyd
Herald Sports Writer
ross.lloyd@smail.astate.edu
The Indian football team concluded spring practice with a black and white game at Indian Stadium on Saturday morning in front of a handful of loyal Indian supporters.
"I was really pleased with how we started out offensively," Coach Roberts said.
Nick Noce took the majority of the snaps under center for the Indians, and the offense moved the ball down the field with ease on its first six possessions.
"He was really on target most of the day," Roberts said. "He did some really good things for us."
Roberts later said that he was impressed with the improvement of Noce's decision making and his drastic improvement to not turn the ball over as compared with last fall.
The offense scored three touchdowns by driving 80 yards on the usually stingy Indian defense.
Then, the offense scored two red-zone touchdowns and capped off the sixth series with a field goal.
After that, the Indian defense tightened down on the very productive offense. They recorded two straight interceptions after the first six series.
"I was pleased with how we started out defensively," Roberts said. "I think we bounced back very well. Khayyam Burns had two interceptions on the day. I think everybody got a glimpse at his ability to make big plays."
This was a live, full-contact scrimmage, which means that the offense and defense had their fair share of big hits. The defense got a rare chance in practice to wrap up and hit the quarterbacks, a chance they try not to pass up.
The coaching staff's main concern for next season is the inexperience on both sides of the ball, but, they remain very optimistic about how well their players will perform in all of the games next season.
"We're going to be very young as a football team," Roberts said. "But, we made tremendous progress this spring."
Of the 69 players that were on the roster for the scrimmage, 22 of them were sophomores, 17 were juniors, and 18 were seniors. Twelve more were not on the team last year.
This, along with the incoming freshmen, shows how young of a team Arkansas State has and the challenge that lies ahead.
"There is still a lot of progress to be made for us to be successful next year," Roberts said. "But, I'm real pleased with the way spring football went."
The scrimmage was the culmination of 15 scheduled spring football practices for the Indians.
The Indians are faced with a challenging schedule for 2004, which will include a game in Baton Rouge against defending BCS champion LSU.
They will open the 2004 season on the road against the Big 12 powerhouse University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. Sept. 4.
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