Brock Pleased as Delaware Sees Big Gains During Second Scrimmage of Preseason

8/20/2016 7:11:00 PM | Football

By: Delaware Athletics

Dave Brock left Delaware Stadium with a good feeling Saturday afternoon.

After watching his team battle throughout its second scrimmage of preseason for nearly three hours, Brock was certainly pleased not only with the improvement on both sides of the ball, but by the effort he saw.

“I loved it,” said Delaware's fourth-year head coach. “This was the best scrimmage we've had - not even close - since I've been here. With the speed that we are playing and with the physical nature of how we are playing, it was a lot of fun to watch. There were a lot of really good football plays on both sides of the ball. We'll watch the tapes and make corrections and see things we'd like to do better, but we certainly saw a lot of good things today.”

The offense started out strong as sophomore quarterback Joe Walker guided the team 75 yards on the first drive of the day that was capped by a short touchdown run by Wes Hills. Several series later senior quarterback Blake Rankin directed a 70-yard scoring drive that resulted in senior Jalen Randolph's short dive into the end zone.

Walker guided another long drive two possessions later, including a 30-yard pass to junior wide receiver Diante Cherry and a 15-yard run by Randolph that put the ball inside the 20-yard line. But the defense came up with a big play when sophomore Grant Roberts blasted into the backfield, tackled Randolph five yards back, and forced a fumble that was recovered by sophomore linebacker Anthony Jackson.

Later action saw a pair of short fade passes into the end zone for touchdowns from Rankin to Cherry and redshirt freshman Pat Kehoe to junior Kareem Williams and more short scoring bursts by Hills and Randolph. Sophomore kicker Frank Raggo and freshman kicker Mark Bonnie also converted 26-yard field goals to complete two other drives.

In addition to Roberts' strip, another big play on defense came when sophomore cornerback Nasir Adderley went high to intercept Kehoe inside the 40-yard line. The scrimmage ended with the two-minute drill with Walker directing the team down to the one-yard line on a pass to sophomore wide receiver Charles Scarff. But the defense won the battle on the next - and final play - knocking down a short Walker pass in the end zone to save a touchdown.

“To come out here and play the way we did on offense after taking some licks on Wednesday morning was impressive,” continued Brock. “Joe made some big time throws and made some nice plays on the perimeter. And the defense battled like crazy. The kids competed hard all day, that was a great way to end it. The defense battled like crazy, guys were flying around....there was some excellent plays.”

“We (on offense) showed a big improvement from when we came out here live on Wednesday,” said Cherry. “The defense got at us pretty good that day and that stuck in our mind. We wanted to get after them and we did that the first couple of periods. We competed hard on both sides of the ball today and the passing game showed true. We've been improving in the passing game all summer long and that showed. The running game is looking good as well. There was some great competition today.”

Delaware will return to morning drills on Monday with a 7:30 a.m. start time.

The Hens are preparing for the season opener set for Thursday, Sept. 1, vs. Delaware State at 7 p.m. at Delaware Stadium.

Great season and single game tickets are available online at www.bluehens.com under “Tickets”, by phone at 302-831-2257, and in-person at the Bob Carpenter Center Ticket Office. Hours of operation are Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Scott Selheimer | selheime@udel.edu | Office: 302-831-8007 | Cell: 302-562-5129