Eagles Hold Media Day, First Full Scrimmage
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Eagles held a two-hour morning scrimmage without the majority of their expected starters, then hosted Media Day in Burke-Tarr Stadium, to cap a busy Friday spent preparing for the 2009 season.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Eagles held a two-hour
morning scrimmage without the majority of their expected starters,
then hosted Media Day in Burke-Tarr Stadium, to cap a busy Friday
spent preparing for the 2009 season.
Eagle head coach Ken Sparks, who is entering his 30th season at
Mossy Creek, held a large portion of his starting lineup for the
upcoming season out of the scrimmage to try to learn more about the
new faces on his football team.
"We have moved some seniors around, but didn't let them play much
this morning," Sparks said after the scrimmage. "We wanted to move
some young ones up to get a look at them in some settings that they
haven't been in before. There were some pluses and minuses, but the
way I feel about it after 13 practices in a handful of days, I was
very, very excited."
Sparks was upbeat about some that have made position changes, as
well as a handful of newcomers the Eagles could rely on heavily by
the time they kickoff the season on Aug. 27.
"We've got two or three defensive backs that are coming to the
front," added Sparks, who has to replace three of his top corners
from a season ago. "Isaac Kinley (Johnson City, Tenn.), he's going
to play. Oliver Davis (Acworth, Ga.), the transfer from Georgia
Southern, he's a player too."
"I think Alan Jackson (Dalton, Ga.) and Kevin Summers (Oak Ridge,
Tenn.) at linebacker have done well," Sparks continued. "Ryan
Helton (Tazewell, Tenn.) made two or three unbelievable plays
today. We've moved him all over the place, and he's found him a
home at linebacker and is going to play. We are really excited
about him."
The most noticeable play of the scrimmage came in the kicking game,
when All-South Atlantic Conference selection Chris Jones (Rome,
Ga.) turned the field with 50+ yard kick out of his own end
zone.
"Chris Jones had an unbelievable day." Sparks said. "He punted one
time, and that's all I wanted to see. He's a difference maker."
Carson-Newman will scrimmage again on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in
Burke-Tarr Stadium.
Additional Ken Sparks Quotes:
On his team's progress thus far:
"We've still got a long way to go in one week and a lot of work to
do to get ready for a ballgame. After next weekend, there's not a
whole lot of time left before we play a ballgame...Little things
are what beat you, and we've got a lot of little things to work on,
like penalties."
On keeping some key figures out of Friday's
scrimmage:
"Without the seniors, there were only four defensive linemen that
didn't play and the three senior linebackers didn't play, so really
the No. 1s were No. 2 in practice...We held out a couple of tight
ends and held out the two running backs except for kicking
units...We held out Alex Good and Reggie Hubbard. That was by
design. We didn't tell anybody because we wanted to see the young
ones to see how they responded and see if they would pick it up and
go. Some of them did and some of them didn't."
