USU Football - Big scrimmage day for the defense

Gary Andersen shifted his weight from one side to the other. Then he smiled and stated the obvious.

"I think the defense was ahead of the offense today."

Indeed.

Jake Doughty, the former Juan Diego star, had a huge game at linebacker. Brian Suite was all over the place from his safety spot. Bojay Filimoeatu had a quarterback sack. Another Juan Diego alum, Frankie Sutera, intercepted Jeff Manning, and Kyler Fackrell was dominant shooting in off the edge at linebacker.

With consistent pressure, the quarterbacks missed open targets, found themselves sacked multiple times, and threw passes that could've been intercepted.

Linebacker Cade Cowdin recovered a Joey DeMartino fumble, JoJo Natson fumbled when he was hit hard, and the big yardage plays were few and far between in Wednesday's scrimmage.

"The defense played well today," senior defensive end Al Lapuaho said. "You saw it out there. We came to play today."

Offensively, there were a few highlights.

* Adam Kennedy made a few beautiful throws, clearly showing command of the new offense.

* DeMartino took a pass from Jeff Manning and went 40 yards, the longest play of the scrimmage.

* Natson caught a nice seam pass, and continued to make the plays needed for time during his true freshman season.

* Joe Hill ran well, and is swiftly putting a stranglehold on the second running back position behind Kerwynn Williams.

The scrimmage lasted about 45 minutes in the first practice with full pads. A number of starters sat out, including Tavaris McMillian, Matt Austin, Travis Reynolds and Chuck Jacobs.

Tony Jones