CONWAY – It was a long, productive day for the University of Central Arkansas football team on Saturday as the Bears took to the purple and gray turf of First Security Field at Estes Stadium for their first scrimmage of the fall – a scrimmage that lasted nearly three hours.
"We got in a lot of work today," said 12th-year head coach Clint Conque. "We had scripted 125 scrimmage snaps and I'm quite certain we got those in and then some, along with some kicking work as well. I thought we got after it pretty well and we're going to learn an awful lot from this scrimmage."
The highlight of the session came early on with the UCA offense working backed up to its own end zone. Senior quarterback Nathan Dick tossed a pass over the secondary to junior Ole Miss transfer wideout Jesse Grandy, who separated from the defense and sprinted down the right sideline with virtually no threat of being tackled to complete the 97-yard touchdown play.
"Grandy's an exciting player when we get him in space," Conque said. "And we had some other positive things happen there in the coming-out portion and made some other big plays. Derrick Steele and Dominique Croom made some nice catches, and Jackie Hinton ran really hard. I thought the offense really had its way at times, we just couldn't maintain that consistency up and down the field."
The lack of consistency, along with some underwhelming play from the freshmen offensive linemen, were the areas of most concern to Conque immediately following the scrimmage.
"It's about consistency," he said. "We struggled running the football early on, but ran it more effectively as the scrimmage went on. Just inconsistent. In the kicking game, we were maybe 50 percent on field goals and that might be generous, so there's inconsistency there. Defensively we gave up some big plays, but made some huge plays and created some turnovers. But we didn't have great continuity. We had a couple turnovers offensively and some inconsistent center snaps. I was disappointed in our freshmen o-linemen, thought they took a step back today. It's a big difference between Friday and Saturday night – those X's are going to move on the snap of the football and we aren't doing a very good job of recognizing that. It looks like we've been practicing for a week."
On the defensive side of the ball the Bears were short-handed in the secondary with Jestin Love and Karl Brady sitting out, but the units up front were at full strength and performed accordingly.
"Our front seven was very, very aggressive," Conque said. "We saw some good things out of those groups. Seth Allison is playing really, really well right now. And Larry Duvall really flashed today up front on the line. He has the potential to become the big-time player we thought he could be. He's 280 pounds now and playing with a lot of confidence, and we need Larry to perform at a high level."
Conque was also pleased with deep snapper Parker Carpenter, a 6-foot-4, 250-lb. freshman from Olive Branch, Miss.
"I'm real proud of how he has performed," Conque said. "Until we get Kirby O'Meara back, he's going to have to shoulder the load there, and I'm happy with the job he's doing."
Less pleasing was the number of penalties the Bears were whistled for, particularly late in the scrimmage.
"Too many penalties," Conque said. "Particularly toward the end. That comes down to discipline, and we got tired and broke down mentally and the penalties start happening. We've got to learn and grow from it. And I do think we'll learn quite a bit from what we did today, and we'll come back and do it again next Saturday and hopefully grow throughout the week and correct what we need to correct.
"We've got a long way to go," he said. "But I'm upbeat because I know the potential this team has. But, potential doesn't win games – achievement does. We've got to start putting it together and achieving."
