BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University football team held its first scrimmage of preseason camp Thursday evening at Provost Umphrey Stadium. The controlled scrimmage ran for nearly two hours and gave the coaching staff and an opportunity to look at the entire team in game-type situations.
 
Big Red's defense had the upper hand early in the scrimmage as the coaches had the offense starting from its own two-yard line. The defense recorded six consecutive stops, including three-and-outs on the first three series. Along with the stops on downs, the defense also picked off a pass which it returned for a score (Vencent Rockwell) and forced fumble.
 
By the end of the scrimmage, the Cardinal defense logged 12 tackles for losses, which included seven sacks, and batted away several passes at the line of scrimmage. Freshman Michael Thomas almost came away with a pick after cutting across the center of the field to make a play on the ball only to have it slip through his hands. The defense also managed to apply pressure all night forcing LU's quarterbacks to throw on the run.
 
The pressure led to a tough start for the QBs early as they started the night 0-for-their-first-8, before heating up later in the night. Sophomore Mike Chandler put an end to that when he hit classmate R.J. Carver for a nine-yard gain.
 
The defense was led by Chidera Umeh's seven tackles, including one for a loss, while sophomore Adrian Owens added four tackles with a TFL.
 
"Obviously, we will need to go back and watch the tape, but it looked to me like we were running to the football well tonight and we timed up some of our blitzes well. We had some negative-yard plays and that is fun to see."
 
The coaching staff got looks at four quarterbacks Thursday with Chandler stepping on to the field first with the ones. Jakolby Longino, Daelyn Williams and Nick Yockey also took snaps during the scrimmage. The group combined to go 13-of-31 (.419) for 127 yards with a touchdown. The scoring strike came on a 10-yard pass from Williams to freshman Jayden Slater in the right side of the end zone.
 
Williams also provided the longest play of the night with a 60-yard scamper down the middle of the field for a score. As a group, the Cardinals carried the ball 41 times for 276 yards (6.7 ypc). Carver had a team-high 12 carries for 36 yards, while Rice transfer Khalan Griffin ended the night with 10 carries for 35 yards.
 
The Cardinals will host their next scrimmage Saturday, Aug. 20^th at Provost Umphrey Stadium. The scrimmage will begin at 6 p.m. and will be free to the public.