Cardinals Scrimmage for Final Time Before Spring Game
April 10, 2010 | Football
April 10, 2010
Louisville, Ky. - The University of Louisville conducted its final major scrimmage before Friday night's Spring Game on Saturday morning.
Louisville conducted over 120 plays on Saturday morning with both the offense and the defense taking turns making plays.
"Coach Strong told us that the offense executed more than the defense today," said senior Adam Froman. "I think the defense played a little better than us the first third of the scrimmage but the second two-thirds we were up and down the field, especially with the ones, doing what we wanted to do. Coach Strong said he was happy with that but he was asking for more out of the defense this week before the spring game."
With the final major scrimmage of spring pratice in the book, Strong's squad now heads into the final three practices this week which will culminate with next Friday's Red-White spring game.
"It was another good scrimmage," Charlie Strong said. "You have to look at a scrimmage just like practice but without all the drill work. We still have to work on our fundamentals."
Senior running back Bilal Powell, who has been the talk of the spring, carried the load for the Cardinals. He totaled 169 yards on thip running back competing due to injuries. Jeremy Wright is out and Victor Anderson can't have contact after shoulder surgery.
"We had some big plays," Strong said. "Bilal Powell has probably had one of the best springs, him and our kicker [Chris Philpott]. Offensively, we're executing. We moved the ball down the field but we had two high snaps [in the red zone] and we can't have that and then we threw an interception."
"He's running so hard and he's a lot stronger and [faster]," Strong said. "He's a senior and he's coming into his own. He's able to go longer."
Froman took a lot of the reps on Saturday and performed pretty well. He went 11 of 14 for 98 yards and threw a two-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cameron Graham. Junior wide receiver Josh Chichester caught six passes, while sophomore Andrell Smith had three receptions.
"Offensively, we've done well all spring," Strong said. "Each day they've continued to get better. What's good is we have two senior quarterbacks and Powell has really stepped it up and is running hard. But our offensive line is moving people out of the way and creating gaps for Powell to run through."
Defensively, the Cardinals are undermanned due to injuries on the defensive line, but they did manage to force three turnovers, including an interception by red-shirt freshman Zed Evans,
"Defensively, we have to execute the defense," Strong said. "That's what we're not doing right now. There are too many big plays...we're giving up too many big plays. That's just from execution. Early in the scrimmage they made some stops but as the scrimmage went on it looked like they got tired. We have to finish the game. That's what we weren't able to do last year and we have to finish the game."
The Cardinals have 11 practices in the books and have just three more to go before Friday's Spring Game at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. So far, Strong is pleased with how his team has progressed.
"This was practice number eleven and I think they have a sense of what's going on," said Strong. "They're adjusting. Every now and then they might have a breakdown but it's a learning process. They know the rules and know what we expect of them."
Louisville returns to practice Monday and Wednesday at 4 p.m. on the practice fields at PJCS.
