After nearly two weeks of two-a-day practices, hours of meetings and crashing helmets with teammates, the Tiger football team lined up across from a team other than its own Saturday. The Tigers took on the Franklin College Grizzlies in a scrimmage Saturday morning, spending about 30 minutes of the session in a modified game format.
The Grizzlies, ranked 24th in the d3football.com preseason poll, looked impressive for most of the game, scoring on three drives during the first half of play.
DePauw would answer with a touchdown drive of their own on a run by sophomore Bryan Coleman.
First-string players received only a percentage of repetitions through most of the first half of open play.
"There are things we did well and things we need to work on," said junior wide receiver Taylor Wagner. "It's a scrimmage and it's early in the season, so we have to take it with a grain of salt. One of the coaches called it moving day. It kind of gave all the players a chance to make an impression and move up or down the depth chart."
Senior quarterback Ethan Schweir took his first snaps against outside competition for the Tiger offense in a modified system from last season, devloped by new offensive coordinator Joe Deifel. Wagner and the other wide receivers were happy with Schweir's performance.
"He looked good," Wagner said. "We're going to keep it pretty simple in a scrimmage. We're not going to put our trick plays or big plays out there in a scrimmage just yet, but he played well."
Senior cornerback Steve Valdiserri echoed the importnace of using the scrimmage as preparation for the weeks ahead.
"We use the scrimmage every year to see how far we've come in camp," Valdiserri said. "It really gives us a great opportunity to get out and get ready for Rose-Hulman next week."
The Tigers travel to Terre Haute next Saturday to take on the Fightin' Engineers at Cook Stadium, officially opening the 2011 campaign. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 p.m.