By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The Jacksonville Red Devils may be tired of hitting each other, but they’re finding out a lot about themselves in the process.
The Red Devils held their second full-contact scrimmage at the end of practice Friday to wrap up their second week. The results have helped new coach Rick Russell and his staff determine who can fill many of the positions in question on offense and defense.
“The first two weeks have been successful,” said Russell, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator who returned to the program after one year as head coach at North Pulaski. “The concentration and effort have been good. We’ve scrimmaged twice now, and it’s allowed us to start making some decisions on our depth chart.”
While Russell deemed thescrimmage a success, it also helped him pick out some areas requiring improvement.
“Things are definitely getting better,” Russell said. “We want to correct and eliminate any mistakes we made from the scrimmage. We have to make sure our linemen are ready and get prepared to scrimmage against Mills on Monday.”
The numbers are holding strong for Jacksonville with 76 players still on the roster.
Defensively, Russell liked what he saw out of linebacker Pierre Lewis and cornerback D’Vone McClure, and also had praise for offensive lineman Dominique Wyatt.
