SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College football team held its final practice of the 2014 spring season on Wednesday evening, completing a 40-play scrimmage which lasted approximately one hour at Gibbs Stadium.
The scrimmage began with three separate nine-play drives and ended with a four-minute drill, with special teams practice and drills mixed in-between. Some highlights included a 20-yard touchdown pass from Evan Jacks to Zach Muller, in which Muller leapt to make the catch and tip-toed near the back of the end zone for the score. Defensively, Terrance Morris earned a sack on the very first play and wound up with two on the day.
Mike Ayers, who will begin his 27th season at the helm of the Terrier program this fall, was pleased with the spring overall.
"I think we accomplished a great deal," said Ayers. "Sure, we would like to have a few more days, but in the end we got to the spot we needed to get to. Overall, I think our guys are understanding and grasping the fundamental, execution and knowledge concepts we are trying to convey. Defensively, we made a great deal of progress. Offensively, we finally got up to speed.
"The biggest thing we've got to do is continue to train both physically and mentally. We've got to come back to camp in August and grind it again. There is no doubt in my mind that when it comes time to play, we will compete. We have some guys that love competing and love to win, and they are going to do what it takes to win."
The first nine-play series saw quarterback Michael Weimer come out on offense and get sacked by both Morris and Tarek Odom. Weimer got two more chances later in the drive and had passes broken up by Cole Higbie and Jim Dolinak. Quarterback Brandon Goodson was on the field for four plays. Both of his pass attempts were incomplete, but Goodson did rush for 13 yards and hand the ball off to Lorenzo Long for a 10-yard burst. Evan Jacks was on the field at quarterback for two plays, rushing each time for a total of 22 yards.
The second series was designed to practice situational down-and-yardage plays. It began with an 11-yard rush by Jonny Martin. Morris then came in off the edge to get his second sack on Weimer. Goodson came on the field and ran for nine yards. Two plays later, quarterback Brad Butler made his first appearance of the day. Butler handed the ball off to Martin for three yards and then ran for 13 himself on an option play. Linebacker Lincoln Stewart made his presence felt by tackling Cam Flowers for a loss. The final play of the series saw Flowers look to go up the middle on third-and-one, but he was stopped for no gain.
The final scripted series was pass-heavy and saw the offense really get thing going. After Jacks was incomplete on the first play, Butler found Octavius Harden down the middle of the field for 30 yards. Butler then made a nice pass to Paul Nelson down the middle, but the ball was dropped. On came Weimer, who completed a short pass Chris Martin for 10 yards. Weimer then looked deep for Will Irwin on the next play, who made an outstanding, leaping catch along the left sideline for 35 yards. Irwin was not done, catching the next two passes for seven and 15 yards from Butler and Weimer, respectively. Butler was then put in a fourth-and-two situation and found Nelson for five yards and a first down. On the final play of the series, Jacks came in and threw a 20-yard pass over the middle to Muller, who tip-toed in-bounds for the touchdown.
The four-minute drill completed the final spring scrimmage. The offense had a goal of getting two first downs in four minutes without getting stopped. The defense won the first go-around, holding Long to seven yards rushing on three separate running plays to force fourth down. The offense got it together as Jacks ran for 12 yards and a first down. Butler came on and had a pass attempt broken up on a diving play by cornerback Brion Anderson. Martin ran for seven yards to set up third-and-three and the offense converted with an eight-yard rush by Will Gay to earn their second first down.
The drill restarted and the offense was successful, yet again. Goodson was at quarterback the entire way, completing the first first-down pass to Wade Francis. A false start made things a little more challenging for the second conversion, but Goodson ran for 10 yards on one play and seven on the next to get off the field.
The Wofford football team returns to camp in August before beginning the 2014 season against Georgia Tech on August 30 in Atlanta.
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