BOONE, N.C. — A mixture of familiar-faced veterans and up-and-coming playmakers stood out during App State's lengthy intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Mountaineer fans will always remember the havoc that
Demetrius Taylor wreaked in the North Carolina Tar Heel backfield in 2019 and routinely against Sun Belt opponents, and he made plenty of familiar plays in Saturday's scrimmage.
But there were also highlight-reel defensive stops by sophomore
Jalen McLeod and long touchdown catches from sophomores
Christan Horn and
Milan Tucker to offer a glimpse of the App State future.
Below is a recap from Saturday, including thoughts from head coach
Shawn Clark and a few highlights from the offense and defense.
App State's 2021 season opens Thursday, Sept. 2 with a neutral-site game against East Carolina at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium. The 2021 home opener is Sept. 18 vs. Elon.
The season ticket renewal and parking request due date is April 30. Season ticket holders who haven't renewed as of yet need to refer to their activation email from Paciolan to activate their account (you retained your same account number). At that point, you can renew your season tickets online.
THOUGHTS FROM COACH CLARK
"Overall, I thought it was a really good day for our program. The first-team defense was lights out again. That's the way they've been all through camp. I thought our second-team offense did a good job.
Tanner Wilson threw three touchdowns to
Christian Wells,
Christan Horn and
Milan Tucker. Overall, I like the speed of the game. I like how we're playing. We have to get things corrected early. Pre-snap penalties has been a big point of emphasis.
"I thought Chase (Brice) did a good job overall. There were some situations where he can't take sacks and needs to get rid of the football … If you end every possession on a kick, you have a chance to win football games. I thought he did some good things, but we have a lot of room for improvement."
DEFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday's scrimmage featured a rotation of the first-string offense versus defense and second-string offense versus defense, starting from a variety of field positions.
The first-string defense was in control for most of the day against the first-string offense, stuffing the run and playing solid against a passing attack led by
Chase Brice and a veteran receiving corps of
Thomas Hennigan,
Corey Sutton,
Jalen Virgil and
Malik Williams.
"We have a lot of team speed on defense," Clark said. "Anytime you return 10 of 11 starters on defense, that's a pretty good recipe for success. Those guys play with a lot of confidence and a lot of speed."
KeSean Brown,
Jordon Earle,
Nick Hampton,
Caleb Spurlin and
Demetrius Taylor each had a hand in a sack, and a
Steven Jones cornerback blitz resulted in another sack.
More pressure from the front seven contributed to a near-interception by safety
Ryan Huff toward the end of the scrimmage. The first-string defense did not surrender a touchdown and only allowed one field goal over the course of seven drives.
OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights for the first-string offense included several
Camerun Peoples catch-and-runs on swing passes out of the backfield and connections from
Chase Brice to
Corey Sutton and
Christian Wells.
It was the
Tanner Wilson-led second string that flashed the biggest plays of the day.
Wilson threw three touchdowns among his six drives – a 29-yarder to Wells on an out-route that the cornerback tried to jump, a 45-yard deep shot to a streaking
Milan Tucker over the top of the safeties and a beautiful 37-yarder to Horn after a pump fake and double move to create separation.
"The second-team receivers, those guys can start just about anywhere in our conference," Clark said. "Fortunately for us, we were able to have four sixth-year seniors come back.
Christan Horn,
Christian Wells and
Milan Tucker have really shined this camp. Sometimes you don't see the small things they do – the blocking, getting lined up right, proper technique, getting the checks."
Horn had three consecutive catches on one drive to move the chains before Wells hauled in the first touchdown of the day. He had another three-catch drive – that also featured a nifty inside run by
Gabe Montgomery and a couple of snags by
Richard Tucker – before Horn's brilliant double move that buckled his defender.
DC Tabscott and
Navy Shuler also took snaps behind center for the second unit toward the end of the scrimmage, with each completing passes to the trio of Horn, Wells and
Milan Tucker, as well as to Montgomery and
Dashaun Davis.
