The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team held its first scrimmage of training camp on Saturday at Finley Stadium. UTC's highly-touted defense looked strong throughout the day, but the offense also had a solid outing that included a pair of Alejandro Bennifield toXavier Borishade touchdown passes.
"You can never tell how it went until you get back to the film room," stated head coach Russ Huesman. "I know we made some plays and really nice catches on the perimeter.
"More than anything, we got in good work on situations.
At the start of practice, we focused on end-game situations and things that could happen, and how we react to them."
Bennifield, the junior signal-caller who is taking over the starting role for the first time, finished 14-16 passing for 184 yards and the two strikes to the senior Borishade.
The first score was a 29-yard circus catch in the endzone by Borishade. The second was a 21-yard dart over the middle.
"I've been impressed with Alejandro," added Huesman. "I think the things we saw today are what he does best. And by that I mean he can improvise."
Senior Derrick Craine led the running game with 18 yards on three carries. He also had one catch for 30 yards. Borishade ended his day with four catches for 61 yards.
On defense, freshman Khayyan Edwards, sophomore Isaiah Mack and junior Joshua Phillips all had a pair of sacks. Freshman Telvin Jones added a pair of tackles-for-loss.
Senior kicker Henrique Ribeiro was 2-3 on the day, connection from 42 and 24 yards. His lone miss was from 41 yards out.
"It was a good prep day," said Huesman. "You usually get that later in camp, but we decided to do it today.
"We have to get better at certain position groups. We've seen some of our guys take baby steps, but they're going to have to take bigger steps from here on out.
"There needs to be a little better sense of urgency for some of these guys. Our really good players are playing really well and at a high level, so we're good to go there. We need another 10-15 guys to take those steps to get ready to play in a backup or rotational role.
"We're not ready yet, but thank goodness we still have 14 or so more practices to get there."
The Mocs have a big announcement on Monday concerning the Sept. 1 home opener against Shorter. Be sure to tune into US 101 FM on Monday at 8:55 a.m. (E.D.T.) to hear some exciting details about the game.
Season tickets are still on sale on GoMocs.com or by calling the UTC Ticket Office at (423) 266-MOCS (6627).
Rushing (Attempts-Yards)
Derrick Craine – 3-18
Kyle Nalls – 5-15
Tyler Roberson – 5-5
Alejandro Bennifield – 5-3
Xavier Borishade – 1-3
Chris Miller – 8-0
Zack Weatherly – 10-(-12)
Passing (C-A, Yards, TD)
Alejandro Bennifield – 14-16, 184 yards, 2TDs
Hunter Moore – 4-6, 34 yards
Zack Weatherly – 4-8, 19 yards
Tyler Roberson – 3-6, 10 yards
Receiving (Rec-Yards, TDs)
Xavier Borishade – 4-61, 2TDs
C.J. Board – 3-37
Alphonso Stewart – 5-35
Zach Pfeifer – 1-30
Bailey Lenior – 2-19
Xavier Johnson – 2-17
James Stovall – 1-15
Wil Young – 3-13
Chris Miller – 1-11
Kyle Nalls – 2-8
DeJuan McQuarters – 1-1
Defense
PBU – Cortez Davis, Dy'Kari Hickey, Cedric Nettles
SACK – Khayyan Edwards (2), Isaiah Mack (2), Joshua Phillips (2)
TFL – Telvin Jones (2), Nakevion Leslie, Derek Mahaffey, Sean McMahan, Eli Shepherd
Field Goals
Henrique Ribeiro 2/3 – Made – 42, 24 yards – Missed 41 yards