Football Cards Hold First Summer Scrimmage
August 09, 2001 | Football
Aug. 9, 2001
LOUISVILLE -- John L. Smith got his first look at the 2001 Cardinals and came away with a laundry list of improvements to be made before the season opener on Aug. 23. Two weeks shy of its opening affair with New Mexico State, U of L went through a 69-play scrimmage at the Cardinal Football Complex Thursday.
"We really need to improve in a lot of areas," said Smith, who is entering his fourth season as Cardinal mentor. "We showed glimpses of brilliance on both sides of the ball but didn't sustain anything. We were our own worse enemy today with penalties and putting the ball on the ground."
The morning's activities opened in strong fashion as QB Dave Ragone led the offense 65 yards for a score. The final 30 yards came on a Ragone to Zek Parker touchdown pass.
On the day, Ragone completed seven of 12 passes for 81 yards.
U of L added a pair of rushing touchdowns later in the drills as backup QB Stefan LeFors and RB T.J. Patterson scored from two and five yards out, respectively.
The Cardinal defense offered its share of highlights including a total of eight sacks.
Redshirt freshman CB J.T. Haskins got the starting nod in place of the ill Josh Minkins and registered a pair of pass breakups. The Lexington native provided the most spectacular showing of the day when he knocked away a Ragone bomb (intended for Parker) at the last moment.
U of L is expected to scrimmage once more before two-a-day practices end on Aug. 16.
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