After just over three weeks of practices and workouts, the football team’s 2017 fall camp has come to a close. The camp concluded Saturday night with a purple and white scrimmage, where the purple team came out on top 47-7.
First-year head coach Adam Dorrel said the purple team comprised of mostly veterans got off to a slow start, scoring just once in the first quarter, but picked it up through the final three quarters.
“I saw a lot of good things. A lot of teachable things that we’ll go through when we evaluate the film,” Dorrel said.
Senior running back De’Andre Brown and senior wide receiver Troy Grant were two of the veterans on the purple team who helped get the team going after a slow start. Both players scored twice, as Brown found the endzone on a 14-yard run and 45-yard screen pass. Grant hauled in just two catches, but both were for touchdowns and totaled 81 yards.
Junior quarterback Dallas Sealey also found a groove as the game progressed. He finished 8-for-10 for 201 yards and three touchdowns.
The white team didn’t get on the board until the fourth quarter, but redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Anthony found junior Kalin Sadler from seven yards out to avoid the shutout.
While the scrimmage was the final tune-up for the Wildcats, fans on sight for the event were able to see all the amenities the stadium would be able to offer this upcoming season, including the high-definition Wessel scoreboard.
Hutton Harris, the recently hired JMC video production manager, and his team were also using the game-speed scrimmage as a final tune-up. The crew was in midseason form running replays and anything else it will be doing during the Wildcats’ home games.
Harris said he was pleased with what he and his ACUTV were able to add to the scrimmage with the video board.
“Saturday was our first run through with our students and we were very pleased their contributions to our first game production. We had 35 students from five different majors work on this game which makes us really excited about the future of ACUTV,” Harris said.
With the excitement of the Wildcat Stadium, the video board and other amenities are sure to add to the game atmosphere come Sept. 16.
“The excitement of being able to produce content for the video board and streaming to Wildcat fans online is something that we all are looking forward to. The board we’re working with really shows off every detail of the content that we produce from on the field and in the stands and we hope that the crowd experience is an enhanced through the quality of the images that we can create,” Harris said
The football team will travel to New Mexico this weekend for the season opener. The Lobos won nine games last season and defeated UTSA in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.
The following week the Wildcats take on Colorado State in the Rams brand-new stadium, before welcoming Houston Baptist for the grand-opening of Wildcat Stadium on Sept. 16. That game will be aired on ESPN3, and the hope is that all of the Wildcats games will eventually have that ability.
