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Headline: Aggies make final adjustments before season
Layercake: Denham looks solid in final preseason scrimmage
By RICHARD PROCTER
Aggie Sports Writer
With just one more chance to test itself before the regular season, the UC Davis football team took to the field with vigor on Friday in the annual Blue-Gold Scrimmage.
Junior quarterback Greg Denham continued to build on last season’s success, completing 23 of 31 passes for 204 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Wide receiver Chris Carter nabbed nearly half of Denham’s passes, catching 9 balls for 99 yards.
“We put some good drives together,” Denham said. “I thought it was a really positive day.”
Coach Bob Biggs was more reserved in his praise.
“[Denham is] a slow starter,” he said. ”He had a couple balls that were knocked down early. Once our offensive line was able to get him some protection, we know he can throw the ball.”
The protection issues were not entirely the offensive line’s fault, however.
The Aggie defense has been working since the end of last season to implement new defensive coordinator Mark Johnson’s scheme, an aggressive 4-3 zone blitz package. The defense blitzed the quarterback several times on Friday, producing five sacks and several hurried throws.
“I’m excited about it, I really am,” Biggs said. “I think it ought to be an improvement from what we were doing last year.”
Despite an increase in quarterback pressure from last season, the defensive scheme still has several kinks to work out. Several times during the scrimmage, Aggie quarterbacks were able to dump the ball off to a receiver, resulting in short completions that moved the chains for the offense.
“If you don’t get pressure, there are some holes in that zone scheme,” Biggs said. “So we have to continue to be able to put fresh bodies in there that can get pressure. If we can do that, I think it’s very confusing for a team to pass.”
Biggs was enthusiastic about the scheme’s run defense.
“Now running the football,” he said, ”we’ve struggled to run the ball against our defense because they’re always slanting and it’s very difficult for the offensive lineman to know where people are going to be.”
Running backs Corbin Cutshaw, Josh Reese and Joe Trombetta saw similar amounts of playing time during the scrimmage (eight, seven and seven rushes, respectively). Cutshaw led the team with 35 yards rushing, including an 11-yard carry. Reese and Trombetta rushed for 25 and 22 yards.
The next time the Aggies take to the field it will be against Fresno State on Sept. 5.
RICHARD PROCTER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.XXX
