By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Jacksonville Red Devils scrimmaged live for the first time in practice on Thursday. Seasonably rare, but long overdue rain, put a damper on the plans for the first scrimmage of the year, but the squad still had a productive practice, according to head coach Rick Russell.
“We started out a little slow on both sides, and then execution got better on both sides as we kept going,” Russell said. “They were slipping a lot when we first started and it just took a little while to get going.”
The plan was to take the team to the playing field at Jan Crow Stadium, set up the camera and film practice.
The rain stopped both of those things.
The team couldn’t go to the main field in the rain because of the damage it would do to the turf, and without a press box or any other high structure near the practice field, there was nowhere to set up the cameras where they would stay dry.
“I think that played a big part in the sluggish start,” Russell said. “But after a few series I think they picked it up and started playing a lot better. We saw some extremely good things we hoped to see. I think it was a very positive practice and I’m very pleased.”
Edge blocking was the first thing that popped out to Russell. The Red Devils have some playmakers that will be handling the ball this year, and making room for those playmakers is a big priority.
“That was a key thing that we were hoping to see,” Russell said. “I thought we did a good job of getting our blocks and creating holes in the right places. And the backs did a good job of finding their spots and making the right cuts.”
James Reddick and Erin Davis were the lineman primarily on the edge helping create the holes.
“Reddick did a good job,” Russell said. “He’s been through the battles, been practicing well for us and made some good blocks today.”
Jacksonville started practice shallow at linebacker, but Russell says there hasbeen steady progress at that spot, and even saw progress in the 90-minute scrimmage.
“We’ve got to get better at linebacker, but they got better as the day went on,” Russell said. “Just getting some live plays they were able to learn, and they did a good job improving their technique and executing.”
The coaching staff mixed and mingled starters on both sides, and didn’t go with a straight first-team versus second-team format. Still it was clear that the offense moved the ball with Tirrell Brown taking the snaps.
“He made some good decisions,” Russell said. “He’s playing real well. When we started opening it up more at the end, he made some good throws.”
There were several dropped passes early in the practice that could be attributed to the weather, but Russell believes the defensive secondary may have been hindering the receivers and gave them credit for some of the offensive woes.
“I thought the secondary guys played somewhat above their practice level,” Russell said. “I was really pleasantly surprised by their effort today.”
As practiced progressed, the weather regressed. When lightning and thunder started, practice was cut short. The squad went back out to pick up where it left off on Friday.
