BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Samford football team went through its preseason scrimmage early Friday morning at Seibert Stadium.
The team scrimmaged for about an hour and a half. Samford head coach Chris Hatcher said he saw some positives on both offense and defense during the session.
"I thought we did some good things on both sides of the ball," Hatcher said. "Offensively, we started fast and then lost our momentum and the defense really took over the scrimmage. I thought we ran the ball well. I thought, for the most part, we tackled well in open space."
The Bulldogs are nearly two weeks into fall camp. Hatcher said the team just needs to keep working as it prepares for the team's season opener on Aug. 24.
"We just have a long way to go," Hatcher said. "We're working different combinations. I wasn't too pleased early, so we ran a few more plays than we anticipated with our ones and twos. It's hard to really say until I go back and watch the film, but we were trying to see who can play and who can't play."
Three different quarterbacks saw action in the scrimmage, with Liam Welch and Chris Oladokun seeing the majority of the work. Welch led the team on three scoring drives, including two touchdown passes to Montrell Washington. One of the scoring passes to Washington was from nine-yards out and the other was a five-yard pass.
"Just from being on the sideline, I thought he played really well," Hatcher said of Welch. "He missed one touchdown pass to a wide open Montrell, but he bounced back. He went where he needed to go with the ball. He's been the backup for a while and now he's kind of immersed himself as the number one guy. But next week is going to be a tell-tale sign as to whether Chris can make up the difference headed into that first week."
Ty Hatcher also saw time at quarterback. The redshirt freshman tossed a pair of touchdown passes, one from four-yards out to Peyton Ringer and one for 15 yards to Moise Satine.
Two running backs produced touchdown runs in the scrimmage as well. Jay Stanton scored on a 65-yard run, while Antwione Sims had five-yard touchdown run.
On the defensive side, linebacker Trimarcus Cheeks produced an interception and a fumble recovery. Jalen Nash had 3.0 sacks, while Emmett Taliaferro had 2.5 sacks for the defense.
Hatcher praised the work of Stanton and Cheeks following the scrimmage.
"Those are two guys that have been playing well up to this point that are brand new," Hatcher said. "A lot of it is that they just have to learn what to do. Cheeks is a big, physical guy that runs well. We have to get him caught up on the schemes a little bit better, but he is a guy that is going to play a lot this year. And then Stanton, he was battling (Antwione) Sims, Devan Walker and (Jocquet) Jiles to see who can be that backup running back for us. But, I thought both of them played really well."
The Bulldogs will now take the weekend off from practice. The team will return to the practice field Monday morning at 8:01 a.m. at Seibert Stadium.
Samford's season opener will be Aug. 24 when the Bulldogs take on Youngstown State in the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff at Montgomery's Cramton Bowl. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. kickoff and the contest can be seen live on ESPN.
