PROVO -- After a disappointing scrimmage last Friday (April 1), Coach Bronco Mendenhall took his team back to LaVell Edwards Stadium to do it all over again Tuesday. He was more pleased with what he saw Tuesday.
"It was much better today," Mendenhall said. "They didn't do it right on Friday, so that's why we came back and did it today. They didn't try hard enough on Friday and in general it was sloppy and mediocre. Today it sounded different. It felt different. The execution was better. I'll take that."
The offense showcased what it could do by racking up 287 yards in the 61-play scrimmage as both the passing and running games clicked. John Beck completed 15-of-20 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He also led a scoring drive that resulted in a field goal.
The top targets were Jonny Harline, who caught two passes for 32 yards and one touchdown, and Nathan Meikle, who had three receptions for 32 yards.
Curtis Brown and Fahu Tahi ran well, breaking tackles and finding holes. Brown led the way with 50 yards on 11 rushes while Tahi added 22 yards on seven runs. Tahi added three receptions for 30 yards and caught a touchdown pass from Beck.
"There weren't too many dropped balls or offsides penalties." Mendenhall said. "The running backs were running hard and defensive players were tackling hard."
The first score came on the third drive of the scrimmage as Jared McLaughlin split the uprights on a 41-yard field goal. Beck engineered the nine-play, 46-yard drive and completed three consecutive passes to get the offense in scoring position. The first was a 17-yard strike to Jonnny Harline, then a seven-yard dump to Tahi
Two drives later and Beck was back under center leading the offense to another score. Starting at the 25, he led an eight-play, 75-yard drive in which picked the defense apart by completing all five of his attempts for 58 yards. Beck found Tahi over the middle for an 18-yard touchdown pass to end the drive.
On his next drive, Beck took the offense 60 yards in just five plays for the last touchdown of the scrimmage. The drive featured Beck finding Matt Smith for 35-yards to get the offense into scoring position. Three plays later he found Harline in the end zone on a 15-yard pass.
"The intensity, overall, with the execution took us a step forward," Mendenhall said. "It's not where it needs to be yet, but I had fun today and I think the players did as well because we're moving in the right direction, not like last Friday."
The scrimmage was the second-to-last preparation before Saturday's (April 9) Blue-White game.
SCRIMMAGE STATS
PASSING Att Cmp Yds Pct. TD INT SCK Long
Jo. Beck 20 15 185 .750 2 0 0 35
Ja. Beck 9 2 32 .222 0 0 1 22
Berry 6 1 7 .166 0 0 0 7
TOTAL 35 18 224 .514 2 1 0 35
Rushing Car Yds TD
Brown 11 50 0
Tahi 7 22 0
Meikle 1 5 0
Latu 1 -4 0
Watterson 2 -10 0
TOTAL 22 63 0
Receiving Rec Yds TD
M. Smith 1 35 0
Harline 2 32 1
Meikle 3 32 0
Tahi 3 30 1
Coats 4 28 0
Reed 1 22 0
Griffin 1 16 0
Jones 1 12 0
Brown 1 10 0
Z. Collie 1 7 0
TOTAL 18 224 2