BOONE, N.C. – Fall camp is ramping up for App State Football, which conducted its first full scrimmage Saturday under blue skies and mid-70s temperatures at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
With 21 days until it kicks off against ETSU in the Aug. 31 season opener, App State scrimmaged for about two hours and had scintillating highlights on both sides of the ball.
The black jerseys on defense were flying around, punctuated by safety
Myles Farmer's fumble recovery in the red zone to end the day. With help from pressure applied by a sized-up defensive line, there were a number of pass breakups on the day including from Farmer, linebacker
Caden Sullivan, safety
Colton Phares, corner
Tyshawn Sanders, linebacker
Kyle Arnholt, Star
Jalik Thomas and corner
Trenton Alan Yowe.
Veterans
Michael Fletcher and
Kevin Abrams-Verwayne made multiple plays in the backfield, leading the way for others like
DJ Burks,
Joshua Donald,
Josiah Wyatt and
Elijah Mc-Cantos to also come up with stops behind the line of scrimmage.
"I like where we are right now," head coach
Shawn Clark said. "We have a lot of team speed on defense. The defense played really well today – ran around to the ball and was living for the big moment. The offense had some good moments at times. Our two-minute situations on both sides were really good as we get used to the new two-minute rules."
Working behind an offensive line that is steadily solidifying an eight-man rotation, according to Clark, quarterbacks
Joey Aguilar and
Billy Wiles both led scoring drives working with first- and second-string units.
Aguilar was on point with several connections to
Kaedin Robinson,
Michael Hetzel and
Dalton Stroman. A 45-yard touchdown from Aguilar to a streaking Robinson up the seam was the first score of the day.
The next score came from a third-string unit led by
David Hernandez, when Hernandez dropped a deep ball perfectly over a pair of defenders for a 45-yard touchdown to
Reece Larson.
Wiles led a pair of scoring drives that included chunk plays from Robinson,
Makai Jackson and
Anderson Castle.
Michael Hughes finished off the first scoring drive with a 44-yard field goal, and Wiles found Jackson for an 8-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone for the final score of the afternoon.
