The Morehead State football Eagles wrapped up spring workouts with the annual spring game on Saturday, April 25. In the spring game the white team earned a 21-18 win over the blue team. White team quarterback Jared Phillips called his own number and posted a 59-yard run that set up a 4-yard touchdown run by halfback Jerrod Pendleton for the first touchdown of the game.
"The spring game wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's not meant to be," said MSU head coach Matt Ballard. "We assign two or three captains and they pick their teams so you get a lot of mismatches. It's meant to be fun and exciting for our players and fans."
The blue team answered with a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Evan Sawyer to halfback Desmond Cox. The blue team took the lead when David Francis scored on a 60-yard interception return putting the score at 12-7 after a failed two-point conversion.
Phillips struck again on a 56-yard touchdown run to put the white team back on top 14-12. Phillips found Pendleton in the end zone on a 40-yard touchdown pass to give the white team a 21-12 lead.
The blue team answered with one more touchdown but were unable to take the lead and fell 21-18.
Despite Sawyer's team losing the spring game, Ballard thought last season's starter had a decent spring.
"I thought Evan (Sawyer) shot par," said Ballard. "He had a good solid spring. He had some great days and made some great plays. Most importantly he had healthy year.
“I thought that from the way he handled himself you could tell he had had a year under his belt," said Ballard. "I think he needs to get more consistent and improve on handling some of the little things. We didn't execute some of the easiest things last season and we need to improve on that."
Ballard said that the Eagles had a productive spring despite some injuries to key players.
"Overall I think we accomplished what we set out to do this spring," said Ballard. "With the exception of one player we came out of spring without serious injury."
MSU defensive back Dereck Harkness missed most of spring practice with a torn meniscus but should return in the fall. Ballard said minor injuries slowed progress somewhat during the second half of spring practice.
"I think up until the second half of spring ball we were exceeding expectations," said Ballard. "I think the silver lining in that cloud was that the injuries allowed us to develop our depth more. The way our team practiced and with their attitude you never would have thought that we were missing Harkness or Wes McDermott the last week and a half. That was positive because during the season you're going to need the depth.
"Overall I think we got better as a football team," said Ballard.
Ballard said that the Eagle receiving corps showed improvement over the course of spring practice.
"Early on in the spring I was not happy with the way we caught the ball at all," said Ballard. "By the end of spring we were much better. We don't have that deep threat guy and we knew that going in but we'll just have to do things a little differently to work around that."
Defending against the run should be a high point for the Eagles next season said Ballard.
"Run defense was rock-solid," said Ballard. "We're as good as we've ever been up front. I was also very impressed with how our guys played in the secondary. We made tremendous improvement there."
Heading into spring practice Ballard and the rest of the MSU coaching staff were concerned with the development of the Eagle special teams. Now that spring practice is over, Ballard and company are pleased with the improvements they saw in special teams.
"When you graduate Mason Webb and Max Hammond, you know it's going to be an uphill battle," said Ballard. "Overall I think our special teams really improved."
With key Pioneer Football League home games against Dayton and San Diego, Ballard thinks the 2009 season will be another tough one.
"In this league it's really getting to where any team can beat any other team any game," said Ballard. "Our fans know that we are going to work hard every game. We're just going to have to keep improving each practice and work on executing better or else it's going to be a tough season. I think we can be competitive but we will have to execute."
MSU opens the season September 5, as the Eagles welcome Southern Virginia to Jayne Stadium.
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Cody Evans photo
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