ABILENE – ACU wrapped up its first week of summer practice Thursday night with a scrimmage at Shotwell Stadium that concluded with head coach Chris Thomsen telling his team it had "all the elements of a championship team."
The Wildcats went through their paces for about two hours under the lights on a breezy evening, working in all phases of special teams and then going offense vs. defense in a controlled scrimmage.
Going into the scrimmage, Thomsen had said he wanted to see improvement from both of his quarterbacks, and afterward he said he liked what he saw from both
Mitchell Gale and
Clark Harrell. Gale took the majority of the snaps with the No. 1 offense, and Harrell had a few snaps with the No. 1 offense.
"Mitchell took a step (tonight) to being the guy we need him to be when the season starts," Thomsen said. "And Clark made some nice throws when he was in there. I definitely saw some positives at that position (Thursday)."
But the quarterbacks weren't the only area of the offense that Thomsen liked in the scrimmage. The offensive line blocked well and receivers did a nice job going after the ball.
"I was the most pleased with our first offensive unit," he said. "(Offensive line coach)
Nathan Young challenged his guys, and they gave Mitchell and Clark a lot of time to throw the ball. Mitchell made some nice throws, and I was happy to see that.
"On the other end, we had some guys do some good things catching the ball, especially guys like
Taylor Gabriel (redshirt freshman) and Edmund (Gates)," Thomsen said. "I was really pleased with the way those guys performed."
And the defensive unit was right where Thomsen wanted to see it as well.
"Those guys are right where they should be," Thomsen said of the starting defense. "They played fast and physical and had a great night out there."
Thomsen said going in that he wanted to see how some of his transfers and freshmen performed, and he got an eyeful from transfer defensive backs Kamaron Riely,
David LaMour and
Nate Bailey, all of whom played well.
Dylan Blount -- who now seems entrenched as a starter at guard on the offensive line -- had another solid outing and a few freshmen also played well. Defensive tackle
T.R. Varnado of Stephenville continued his impressive play, taking a few reps with the No. 1 unit, and freshman receiver
Zack Agnew of Vernon -- a big target at 6-2, 210 -- had a couple of nice grabs as he made a case for playing time.
"We had a really, really good effort (tonight)," Thomsen told his team after the scrimmage. "We had a really good tempo all night, and I was proud of the effort. We had two hours of really good work and I saw a lot of good things.
"We have all the elements of a championship team," he said. "All you (players) have to do is do your part. I'm really excited about this team, and as players you should be, too. We've still got work to do to be where we need to be, but this team is coming together in a lot of different ways and that excites me."
ACU NOTES
* During kickoff drills,
Spencer Covey worked with the No. 1 unit, booming all of his kickoffs deep into the end zone or through the back of the end zone. ... Last year's placekicker,
Morgan Lineberry, had a solid night kicking field goals with the No. 1 unit as well. ... Freshmen quarterbacks
Luke Lutrell (Irving) and
Austin Lindsey (Uvalde) each saw action and Luttrell threw a touchdown pass on the final play of the scrimmage. ... Running back
Daryl Richardson was solid as he continued his strong play this summer. ... Redshirt freshman running back-turned-receiver
Darrell Cantu-Harkless had a nice scrimmage with a couple of catches.
* The next item on the Wildcats' summer agenda is their annual team retreat, which will be Friday and Saturday (Aug. 20-21). The team will leave for Camp Butman (south of Abilene) Friday afternoon for a weekend of spiritual rejuvenation led by coaches and local pastors. The weekend has become a staple of the Wildcats' summer camp, and a favorite among team members.
* ACU will be off Monday for the opening day of school and then return to the practice field for single practices Tuesday-Friday. The Wildcats will then go through their final scrimmage of the summer next Saturday (Aug. 28) at 9 a.m. at Shotwell Stadium. That will be more of a tune-up for the season-opener (Sept. 4 at Washburn) as they go through their pre-game routine and working on substitutions, kicking game, etc.
