SCRIMMAGE ONE: Special teams rundown

CORVALLIS -- Fine weather and a crowd of about 750 welcomed the first scrimmage of the fall camp in the Valley. Reser Stadium was alive again with whistles, play calling, sounds of helmets and pads colliding, penalty flags and, oh yes, cheers. The Beaver special teams kicked things off..

Both James Rodgers and Jacquizz Rodgers sat out of from scrimmage contact. James, however, got in some work in warm-ups with the special teams.

Special Teams
Punting:
Unlike last year, there was actual contact for the special team drills in scrimmage. By contact, I don’t mean hard bone jarring hits, but reasonable tackles good enough to stop one in his tracks.

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John Hekker and Ryan Allen did the punting, and both were inconsistent. Hekker shanked a handful, while Allen didn’t get enough hang time and was counting on the roll.

Still, Allen managed to deliver the best punt of the warm-ups. James Rodgers, Kevan Walker and Markus Wheaton practiced the punt-returns in warm-ups.

THE SPECIAL TEAMS UNITS did a decent job on coverage. And taking into account the whole of the day’s punting events, Hekker was clearly the better performer today.

Kicking:
Justin Kahut managed to convert all his field goal attempts. Matt Barker had a tough outing hooking his first couple of boots well wide of target. He did, however, pick things up and finished with his final kick through the uprights.

There wasn’t any considerable wind in the stadium on Saturday to disrupt the flight of the ball. But on kick-off’s both Kahut and Barker were kicking in to designated areas rather than trying to kick in to the end zone.

Both kicked off for the special teams units to run their coverage drills. Rashaad Reynolds, Micah Hatfield and Sean Martin returned the kick-offs for the special teams.

Martin had a great run through the middle. From this writer’s perspective, the entirety of the special team drills in the scrimmage were a decisive notch above last year where there was almost virtually no tackling of any kind.

The offense and defense split up to the end-zone directions to do their warm-up routines.

James Rodgers dropped a long pass causing some boos, jokingly, from the crowd. Quon was in on the joke, and couldn’t help smiling after he heard that. On his next attempt the crowd offered him applause.

Quizz and Quon sat out contact but did take part in the 11 vs. none drills.

There were a couple of highlight reel catches from Sean McGarity and Marcus Wheaton. The Beaver D, as always, was boisterous. The officials made their way to the stadium and there was a group huddle before the scrimmage.

The scrimmage got underway and the drives started from the 30 yard line near the North end zone and progressed towards the South.

Check the front page of BF.C for the continuation of Ajith Rajan’s report.