Posted on April 16, 2007
Not much changed at the quarterback position during the past three seasons at Madison.
After transferring to JMU as a sophomore, Justin Rascati established himself as the starting quarterback his first year, leading Madison to a national championship in the 2004 season.
Things are about to be shaken up, though, as rising redshirt junior Rodney Landers will contend with two redshirt freshmen in Drew Dudzik and Keith McPherson for the starting job on the 2007 team.
The quarterback trio participated in an inter-squad spring scrimmage Friday in which the first-team offense matched up with the first-team defense, and the second-team offense with the second-team defense.
Landers took the helm for the first team, and Drew Dudzik shared snaps with Keith McPherson for the second team. Both offensive units used a no-huddle offense extensively.
“We’re a young team, but we’re a good group and we changed the offense up a little bit,” Dudzik said. “It’s explosive and it’s all about getting our playmakers the ball, which we still have in Eugene [Holloman], Antoinne [Bolton], and Rodney [Landers].”
The high intensity scrimmage ended with the first team offense winning in a simulated overtime period. Both teams were given a shortened field to score on, and the first team offense did so while the second team offense failed to score.
“Right now it’s all about competing,” Dudzik said. “Everyone’s trying to win a spot on the field, and everyone wants to play that first game.”
Dudzik played well in the scrimmage, rushing for one touchdown to cap off an eight-play, 70 yards series.
Redshirt freshman tailback Jamal Sullivan had a touchdown run of 10 yards to finish a six-play, 40-yard drive, while fellow redshirt freshman tailback Reggie Hicks had a one-yard score in overtime at the end of a seven-play, 25-yard series.
Rising senior tailback Antoinne Bolton ran for 47 yards on seven carries, one of which he nearly broke for a touchdown before being tackled by sophomore defensive tackle D.J. Skolnitsky. Bolton sat out the remaining part of scrimmage due to a bruised shoulder as a result of Skolnitsky’s hit.
“I think we ran the ball well. There were a couple of mental errors, a couple of mental busts, but that comes with the offense we’re running now,” McPherson said. “With the no-huddle, there are a lot of signals and fast movements on the fly. Overall, I think we did an alright job.”
Rising senior wide receiver L.C. Baker and classmate and tailback Eugene Holloman were both held out of practice for precautionary reasons, along with All-American senior safety Tony LeZotte.
“You know it’s tough because you’re going to go through your learning curves,” Landers said. “It doesn’t help when you can’t go with all your main weapons. Right now we have some guys held out due to injury, and we have other guys that we want to hold out to prevent injury.”
The level of intensity at Friday’s practice was highlighted by a scuffle that broke out between offensive and defensive players during a running drill.
“They’re big boys running into each other all the time,” coach Mickey Matthews said. “We don’t encourage it, but sometimes tempers flare.”
Madison appeared to be sharp defensively, despite the loss of All-American linebacker Akeem Jordan.
“D.J. Brandon did some good things, and I thought J.D. Skolnitsky continues to play well,” Matthews said.
Brandon is a junior linebacker, and Skolnitsky a sophomore defensive tackle.
“That’s what the spring’s for. We want to get out here and find some bright spots and some guys have been stepping up so far,” Landers said.
