Football team's 2nd scrimmage leaves room for improvement

Much like the hot and cold weather plaguing central Indiana, the Hoosier football team had highs and lows during their second scrimmage of the spring season.\n"It went good and OK," senior wide receiver Antwaan Randle El said. "We didn't play as well as we wanted on offense, and we still have some things that need to be corrected on defense, but overall we stayed with it and near the end made some big plays."\nThe offense and the defense struggled early in the scrimmage. \nSophomore quarterback Tommy Jones, one of three quarterbacks competing for the starting position, led the first team offense. But Jones was off the mark.\n"We didn't ask Tommy Jones to do a whole lot," coach Cam Cameron said. "A missed completion here or there is big, especially in a close ball game. It's the fundamental plays he's got to make on a consistent basis."\nBut where the first team offense was struggling, the second team offense was showing some promise. The second team got the ball past the defense on a couple of different plays, and managed to find the end zone.\n"Our second team offense scored three out of the first four times, so I thought our twos on offense really played the best they've played," Cameron said. "The latter part of the scrimmage our first offense finally got on track. But it balanced out pretty good. Both sides of the ball didsome good things." \nThe defense found themselves making mistakes, but amid a plethora of missed tackles and misread assignments, there were some highlights. \nThe defense got in a few hard hits. Junior linebacker Devin Schaffer, sophomore cornerback Michael Hanley and sophomore strong safety Joe Gonzalez each made some big plays that showed improvement for the defense.\n"It's not an easy thing building a successful defense," Schaffer said. "On offense, one guy can make plays and carry your offense, but on defense, if one guy makes a mistake, it's positive yardage. But we're trying to iron things out."\nTurnovers plagued both sides during the scrimmage. The offense had a couple of fumbles from both the first and the second team.\nThe defense let the ball get over their heads a couple of times, and a few missed tackles led to big plays from the offense. Cameron said the safeties are going to have to get better.\nRandle El, freshman running back Brian Lewis and junior running back Levron Williams each produced a big play for the offense. Each of them were able to find running room for 15 or more yards. \n"We've gotten better everyday," Randle El said. "Our practices have been real physical, and that's what we need. Our defense is really coming at our receivers. Our linebackers are hitting the fullbacks. We have some hitting and some physical stuff going on and that's great. But we're working together, and we're not giving up on each other"