The Falcon football team wasted little time displaying their offensive prowess in the battle of Orange versus White in the spring game.
Omar Jacobs was at his usual best throwing for six touchdown passes, all in the first half, in guiding his Orange squad to a 45-42 victory in Doyt L. Perry Stadium Saturday.
Jacobs, who was 24 of 38 for 441 yards, had an instant connection with two freshman receivers who were displaying their abilities to the Falcon faithful for the first time. He found Corey Partridge six times for 140 yards and three touchdowns, while Luke Alexander hauled in five passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
“We need that kind of showing from those guys so when it’s time to go in [games], there won’t be a dropoff,” Jacobs said of his new targets.
The White team was led by backup quarterback Anthony Turner, who showed an impressive ability to throw the deep ball while looking calm running plays. Turner completed his first 10 passes of the scrimmage and finished the contest completing 17 of 28 passes for 278 yards and four touchdowns.
Turner’s outing was a strong statement for his ability to fill in down the road for Jacobs, but the red-shirt freshman is just enjoying how things are now.
“It felt good to show people what I can do, but as long as Omar’s in there and I’m learning from Omar, everything else is fine,” Turner said.
The first half seemed like a track meet with both teams running up and down the field as they combined to score 80 points on 882 yards, with the Orange team leading 45-35.
It seemed as though anything the offense schemed up worked flawlessly on the field.
Wide receiver Steve Sanders, who played for White, ran 61-yards for a touchdown on an end around and caught an 80-yard TD pass from Turner with 10 seconds remaining in the half. He finished with three catches for 121 yards.
Derrick Lett, who is slated to start at the Z this year, hauled in the first two scores of the game, from 14-yards and 38-yards out, and finished with five catches for 78 yards for the White.
Running back P.J. Pope was in top form, using his small frame to bounce off tacklers while showing a quick burst through the hole, racking up 118 yards on 11 carries including a 43-yard TD run, all coming in the first half.
While those numbers are incredibly impressive for the offense to come away with, it is concerning for the defense.
Falcons head coach Gregg Brandon would have liked to see more stops from the defense, but he knows there is plenty of time to fix things.
“We need to cover the deep ball, and that’s something that we stress going into the spring and we didn’t get that done (during the scrimmage), so we got to get it done in camp,” Brandon said.
One bright spot on defense was a player that used to work on the other side of the ball. Former quarterback Van Johnson, who has been switched to cornerback this year, intercepted Jacobs late in the game and recovered a fumble.
After all the fireworks in the first half, the last two quarters were 12 minutes long with a running clock.
Brandon was pleased to get some of the young players some game-like experience.
“A lot of things that you can’t simulate (in practice) happened today, so that’s always good to get these kids in game situations,” he said.
