(Click here to view the photo gallery from Saturday’s spring football game.)
BATON ROUGE — Dwayne Bowe caught two touchdown passes, one each from quarterback Marcus Randall and running back Alley Broussard, as the White squad rolled to a 22-3 win over the Purple team before 10,194 fans here Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
The win by the White team snapped a four-game winning streak for the Purple squad.
“I was really pleased with the effort and the intensity that we played with,” LSU coach Nick Saban, who served as the “Commissioner” of the game said. “I thought this group of players really tried to have fun with this game. There was some spirit before the game relative to going out and playing and I was pleased with that. I thought the players played with intensity and I thought they played hard.”
The White team never trailed in the contest as they capitalized on a safety early in the first quarter when deep snapper Ben Wilkerson snapped the ball over the head of punter Patrick Fisher, who was then tackled in the endzone.
From there, the White team only needed five plays to score again, this time on a 30-yard pass from Randall to Bowe, for a 9-0 advantage. Chris Jackson added a 22-yard field goal four minutes later for a 12-0 advantage for the White squad.
“Sometimes things happen in the spring game that are of no concern,” Saban said. “Ben Wilkerson has never made a long snap here in his life and he made a long snap today and it was not a very good one. He is our backup long snapper in spring practice and he does not need to do anything but short snap and snap for field goals. We have recruited a guy who is a very good long snapper. So sometimes things you see happen in the spring game are not things to be concerned about.
“Other things you see are things to be concerned about. I think the good news is that some of the young players that may have to contribute next year had an opportunity today to get out in a game-like situation in front of some people and compete and do it with a fair amount of anxiety, probably for the first time. Some of them did fairly well and some of them did not do as well as we would like. Some of them started off poorly and got better and I think that is what young players need is experience and knowledge so that they can lay more consistently.”
The White team extended its lead to 15-0 early in the second quarter on a 26-yard field goal, which was setup by a 41-yard reception by Corey Webster from Randall.
The Purple cut the deficit to 15-3 at halftime on a 28-yard field goal by Ryan Gaudet. The key play in the Purple drive was a 36-yard catch-and-run by Joseph Addai.
After a scoreless third quarter, the White squad put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter when Broussard found Bowe with a 20-yard halfback pass. The one-play, eight-second drive was setup when Keron Gordon returned an interception 36 yards to the Purple 20-yard line.
For the game, Justin Vincent and Shyrone Carey led all rushers with 38 yards on seven carries, while Alley Broussard had 22 yards on six attempts.
Randall connected on nine of 23 passes for 131 yards and one score, while Russell, who saw action for both teams, was a combined nine of 21 for 128 yards. Matt Flynn was 12 of 28 with one interception for 112 yards.
Bowe led all receivers with 93 yards and two TDs on five catches, while Skyler Green added four catches for 36 yards. Addai finished with three receptions for 66 yards and Webster had a pair of grabs for 50 yards.
Defensively, the White team combined for eight sacks, with defensive tackle Melvin Oliver accounting for three for 27-yards in losses. Ryan Willis and Claude Wroten each had a pair of sacks for the White squad, while Jesse Daniels and Travis Daniels paced the Purple team with six tackles each.
“It was very warm out there, probably the hottest day that we have had this spring but I was really pleased with the effort and the intensity that we played with,” Saban said. “The execution was not what we would want it to be. We had more penalties than what I would like to see even in the spring game. Some of them were just little things, and the game management part of it for the young quarterbacks was not what we wanted to see.
“I saw some talent and ability in what those guys did out there in terms of how they threw the ball, but I also saw some miscommunications on snap counts and things like that which are the type of mistakes that you have to eliminate before you can give yourselves a chance to be successful. To be able to have the opportunity to do what is important for your team to have success and win you must eliminate that stuff, so we must do that. They are all mistakes that are correctable, but it is the process that young players need to go through.”
2004 LSU Football Spring Game – Final Stats
Purple 0 3 0 0 – 3
White 12 3 0 7 -22
Attendance – 10,194
Scoring Summary
1Q 9:10 White Melvin Oliver safety – tackled punter in endzone
1Q 7:11 White Dwayne Bowe 30 pass from Marcus Randall (Chris Jackson kick)
1Q 3:09 White Chris Jackson 30 field goal
2Q 8:54 White Chris Jackson 26 field goal
2Q 1:09 Purple Ryan Gaudet 28 field goal
4Q 11:57 White Bowe 20 pass from Alley Broussard (Jackson kick)
Team Stats Purple White
First Downs 15 14
Rushing 3 4
Passing 9 7
Penalty 3 3
Rushing Attempts 22 21
Yards gained rushing 66 89
Yards lost rushing 102 8
Net yards rushing -36 81
Net yards passing 209 182
Passes Attempted 43 31
Passes Completed 18 13
Had Intercepted 1 0
Total offensive plays 65 52
Total net yards 173 263
Average gain per play 2.7 5.1
Fumbles: Number-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties: Number-Yards 6-44 3-24
Number of Punts – Yards 6-223 5-196
Average per punt 37.2 39.2
Punt Returns: Number-Yards 1-13 1-13
Kickoff Returns: Number-Yards 2-24 0-0
Interceptions: Number-Yards 0-0 1-36
Fumble Returns: Number-Yards 0-0 0-0
Possession Time: 32:37 27:23
3rd-Down conversions 4 of 16 3 of 12
4th-Down conversions 1 of 3 0 of 0
Sacks by: Number-Yards 1-5 8-66
Rushing
Purple – Vincent 7-38, Addai 3-18, Spadoni 2-8, Team 1- (-33), Russell 5 – (33), Flynn 4-(-34)
White – Carey 7-38, Broussard 6-22, Edwards 5-16, Randall 2-10, Farrar 1- (-5)
Passing
Purple – Flynn 28-12-1-112, Russell 15-6-0-97
White – Randall 23-9-0-131, Russell 6-3-0-31, Broussard 1-1-0-20, Team 1-0-0-0
Receiving
Purple – Green 4-36, Addai 3-66, Davis 3-47, Spadoni 2-16, Clayton 2-16, Jones 1-13, Vincent 1-7, Hill 1-5, Mares 1-3
White – Bowe 5-93 2 TD, Giambelluca 3-25, Webster 2-50, Hebert 2-15, Carey 1- (-1)