After being dominated by the defense during last Saturday’s scrimmage, the offense, led by quarterback Kevin Yost, needed to come out for Idaho State’s final fall scrimmage Wednesday and prove Saturday was a fluke.
With the first drive of the scrimmage, the offense sent a message.
Yost led the offense on a 17-play drive, completing 9-of-11 passes. The drive was capped off with 32-yard field goal by Brendon Garcia.
Yost finished the day 21-of-29 for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
“Kevin played like surgeon today,” ISU head coach Mike Kramer said. “He really, really did a good job cutting up a good defense, and one that is pretty familiar with what our offense does.”
“It is good for us as an offense to come out and face Donovan Henley and Anthony Boyles everyday,” Yost said. “They got the better of us in the last scrimmage a little bit. But we came out today and were clicking a little bit better. And we came out and moved the ball a little bit and put up some points.”
After their performance Saturday, Kramer issued a challenge to his wide receivers to step up their performance, telling his players that Rodrick Rumble can’t do everything by himself.
Kramer held Rumble out of Wednesday’s scrimmage and the other two starting receivers, Cam Richmond and Derek Graves, had their best performances of fall camp.
Richmond caught seven passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns, while Graves caught six passes for 48 yards.
“All of our receivers have accepted coach’s challenge and ran with it,” Yost said. “Rodrick is a great player, but we have a lot of good receivers like Cam, Derek and Luke Austin in the slot and Josh Hill at tight end. We have a really good receiving corps so if a guy goes down, someone will step up.”
Overall on the day, the offense completed 30-of-45 passes and had four touchdowns, three passing and one rushing.
The defense did force two turnovers, both interceptions, and both returned for touchdowns.
Justin Arias was intercepted by safety Jon Davidson and freshman linebacker Kurt Karstetter on back-to-back drives. But Kramer was quick to point out the neither of the interceptions Wednesday, or the two he threw Saturday, were his fault. He placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the freshmen receivers.
“Our freshmen have hit a wall,” Kramer said. “They hit a wall last Saturday, and they have not came off the wall yet. Our true freshmen are languishing right where they should be and that’s not anything bad, but three or four of these kids will have to play in our two deep. It is my responsibility to communicate to them in private, in person or any way I can right now that they understand how accelerated their learning curve has to be,”
Henley led the defense with six tackles, including two big hits on Richmond and running back Daniel McSurdy.
Sophomore linebacker Demetrius Allen added five tackles.
As the Bengals head into their week one match-up with Air Force, Kramer was asked if anyone on the team had surprised him with their performance in camp. He answered quickly.
“I like how Jake Pele has come out of the stands,” Kramer said. “I say that cryptically because at this time last year we would take Jake out into the field and point to the seats and say, ‘See those seats? That’s where you are going to be sitting if you don’t get going.’ He was so far from being a good player, now he is one of our leaders.”
Notes: Along with Rumble, running back Aaron Prier did not participate in the scrimmage. He was out of his walking boot, but is not back to 100 percent.
Kramer praised the play of Nick Beckman on his move to the guard from tackle. Kramer said that he has picked everything up quickly and should help shore up the offensive line.
CJ Reyes worked on both the roll punt and a traditional in the scrimmage. His first punt was tipped but still managed to roll 35 yards. He also had some good hang time on traditional punts, including one late that sailed 50 yards.
Highland High School grad, Kai Campbell had a solid day catching six balls for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Kramer praised Campbell’s efforts but said he is not ready to compete against the first string defense yet.
Practice for the Bengals will now be closed to the public for the rest of the season. Beginning today, the team will practice at 6:30 a.m. in Holt Arena.
The Bengals open the season Sept. 1 at Air Force. Kick-off is scheduled for Noon.