Redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee got the majority of the snaps at quarterback during the Tigers’ scrimmage Saturday, as sophomore quarterback Andrew Hatch left early with stiffness in his back.
“We planned that both Lee and Hatch would get equal snaps,” Miles said. “But Hatch got a little tight, so rather than extend him we took him off the field prematurely. Jarrett Lee threw the ball extremely well. He ran a couple of nice draws and scrambled out of the pocket a couple of times. He looked pretty good.”
Miles said progress on defense is a little ahead of the offense, and he was not pleased with two turnovers during the scrimmage, including a fumble by junior running back Keiland Williams.
“Patrick Peterson stripped one of our tailbacks [Williams] down the field — certainly enough to make you mad and get things fixed,” Miles said.
Senior defensive tackle Charles Alexander and senior center Brett Helms did not play in the scrimmage. Miles said linebacker Darry Beckwith participated in some running but did not play.
Miles said one focus for the Tigers as they continue practice will be decreasing penalties — including pre-snap infractions, with which players struggled Saturday.
“We don’t want to give our opponents anything,” he said. “There’s no reason for us to allow a very quality opponent any advantage. We have to eliminate the things we do to ourselves.”
The Tigers also worked more on game operations Saturday, with officiating and the offensive and defensive coordinators calling plays.
“I’m really glad we did that because we have some new coordinators, and we needed to see how it was all going to function,” Miles said. “We told the officials to really police us well. We’ll require our players to be really aware because they are calling much more aggressively, and there’s no warning.”
Miles said after Saturday’s non-tackling scrimmage he will get a better idea of where many players stand on the depth chart.
“It’s imperative that you take days like today to evaluate every position,” he said. “As a coach you take the information from today and make wise moves from this point forward. It’s a very important scrimmage.”
The Tigers break camp tomorrow and have their next scrimmage Tuesday at 4 p.m.
—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]