Football team ends spring ball; Cross and Myers shine in final practice scrimmage
Spring football practice came to a close Friday night in Romney Stadium with a scrimmage in which junior college transfer running back Marcus Cross and sophomore tight end Rob Myers played well.
The rain came down steadily as a handful of fans watched the offense, led by junior quarterback Leon Jackson III, run 30 plays against the defense and score three touchdowns.
Utah State Head Coach Brent Guy said he regretted losing four players to injury on the offensive line this spring, but, “what was good about that though was having the freshmen kids get a lot of snaps.”
The Aggie offense showed a bit of the shotgun zone read play the Texas Longhorns made famous with Vince Young last year.
“We were able to run the zone play and create creases for the running back to run in,” Guy said. “That was one of the big things we wanted to ge
“It’s just so much easier than the gap schemes we’ve been trying to run where sometimes it’s a guessing game trying to angle block and breach the line of scrimmage at one spot as opposed to run the zone play and find a crease.”
Jackson was six for ten passing for 95 yards with one touchdown and one interception on a play where he was flushed from the pocket and picked off by walk-on safety Taylor Bodily.
Cross carried six times for 39 yards and two touchdowns while Jackson, the leading rusher last year, toted it five times for 36 yards. Cross showed the ability to get to the corner and get yardage in chunks, especially on his second touchdown, a 20-yard dash down the western sideline.
“Leon took all thirty snaps and made some nice plays,” Guy said. “He made good decisions when to run and get
Jackson’s touchdown throw also came when he left the pocket and threw on the move, this time connecting with Myers to bail the Aggies out of a long-yardage third down situation.
“Rob Myers just kept coming and coming. He’s had a couple that he’s tried to one-hand this spring and we’ve been on him but that catch was by far the best one I’ve seen him make,” Guy said. “That was a third down play where Leon stepped up, avoided the rush, started to run the football, didn’t get across the line of scrimmage and made a play.
“That was a heck of a play especially on third down in the red zone. That was a long third down play, we were probably going to kick the football there and Rob coverts it into a touchdown for us.”
Myers said he was excited after becoming the scrimmage’s leading receiver and putting himself in good shape to compete for the starting tight end position in the fall, but he said his game still has holes.
“I need to work on my blocking, it’s far from perfect,” Myers said. “I got recruited as a receiver down here and packed on a couple of pounds pretty early so they decided to move me to tight end.
“I can run and catch but I’m still working on my blocking.”
“He did a great job and for a big guy to have the speed that he has is tremendous,” Jackson said of Myers.
Converted quarterback Eric Sobolewski made the biggest play other than Bodily’s interception for the defense, coming up from his safety spot to stop Ryan Bohm cold for a four yard loss.
-graham@cc.usu.edu