New players display skills at first open practice

Stephanie Young/Senior Photographer DIRECTING TRAFFIC: Head football coach Joe Tiller manages his team during practice at the intramural fields Friday. The team held its first open scrimmage of the spring Saturday.

By Andrew Hershberger
Assistant Sports Editor

The new guys on the football team got a chance to impress their coaches as well as their fans for the first time Saturday as they held their first open practice at Leslie Field on the campus of West Lafayette High School.

Former Purdue kicker Travis Dorsch was among those in attendance and said the team looks good.

"They've come out this spring with a lot of enthusiasm," Dorsch said. "They've put last year behind them and I think this could be a special year if they put things together. It's a good group of guys ready to impress."

Head coach Joe Tiller said Saturday was a good opportunity to get all the players on the field and see what they can do.

"We wanted to get everybody on tape and get through the scrimmage, see particularly what the new guys could do," Tiller said. "I thought all of them certainly got on the field and did some positive things."

Junior college transfer Anthony Chambers, who played with the second-team offense, caught five balls for 83 yards. The highlight of his day was a 46-yard reception from redshirt freshman quarterback Kyle Smith in the second offensive series of the day.

"Chambers did some positive things like we thought he would," Tiller said. "I liked most of the things he did; the only thing I didn't like was how he trapped the ball against his body, even though he made the catch."

Redshirt freshman Jerod Void, who switched from wide receiver to running back during bowl preparations last season, had the best performance of the day. He ran 65 yards on a draw play and was dragged down just short of the goal line. Void had 73 yards on six carries, including a 5-yard touchdown that impressed his coach.

"I liked the play down there where Void got into the end zone," Tiller said. "I liked how he hit the crease and stuck the ball in. I think he will learn from the red zone drills today and there's no doubt in our minds he's going to stick at running back; he's not going back to wide receiver."

First-team quarterback Kyle Orton finished the day 11 of 18 passing for 178 yards and a 33-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Taylor Stubblefield. Although Orton displayed some strong passing, Tiller thought his young quarterback looked a little flat.

"I didn't think Orton threw the ball particularly well," Tiller said. "He threw some really good balls; there's no question about it, but I don't expect Kyle Orton to one-hop the ball. You really don't expect that from a guy you consider to be your starter."

Stubblefield led the receivers with five catches for 139 yards and the touchdown from Orton. Freshman tight end Nick Cavallo impressed his coach with a 17-yard catch and solid play at his position.

"Cavallo caught a ball, got up field and did a nice job blocking today." Tiller said.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Jameson Evans made his only catch count — a 10-yard touchdown catch from Smith, who ended up 9 of 14 with a touchdown.

The defense showed what they could do as well, recording six sacks and stopping the run. Redshirt freshmen Brent Grover, Antwan Harris and Brandon Villarreal all recorded sacks. Redshirt freshman linebacker Brent Hawkins also picked off a pass from Smith and returned it for a 53-yard touchdown.

"I really liked the way we started defensively and I was a little disappointed we let them in that time down there; we relaxed," Tiller said. "We thought we would run pretty good on defense."

The final four plays of the afternoon were field goal attempts. Junior college transfer Berin Lacevic and sophomore Andy Nelson both connected on 37-yard attempts, but both missed from 42 yards. Lacevic has the early edge on the starting spot, but Dorsch believes the job is still anyone's to win.

"I'm just trying to be an impartial observer, you know?" Dorsch said. "They're both working hard and the job's wide open. I think both of them have a great opportunity to go out and impress some people."

The Boilermakers will return to the intramural fields for practice at 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They will scrimmage again next Saturday at Leslie Field. That scrimmage will be closed to the public.

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Sports editor: Jason Tomcsi

Assistant sports editor:
Andrew Hershberger

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