Miners close out spring season with scrimmage
EL PASO, Texas – For the second consecutive week, the defense stole the show as UTEP wrapped up 2016 spring drills with its annual Blue and White scrimmage on Friday night in the Sun Bowl.
“That’s back-to-back scrimmages where they came out and lit it up, and really in all phases,” coach Sean Kugler said. “I’m really pleased with where we’re at defensively and even more excited about some of the guys we’re going to be getting back after spring ball … guys like Alvin Jones, Luke Elsner, Stephen Forester and Devin Cockrell. They did it [tonight] with some guys who are out and starters missing, so that was exciting.”
The defense coerced quarterbacks Kavika Johnson and Ryan Metz into completing 14-of-33 passes for 85 yards in the portions of the scrimmage where stats were kept – the move ball, red zone and two-minute segments. Johnson finished 10-of-22 for 66 yards with an interception, and Metz was 4-of-11 for 19 yards.
“Offensively, we were pretty spotty as far as the receiver play tonight,” Kugler said. “There were too many drops and not running through routes, those types of things that we need to clear up. I thought Treyvon Hughes ran really well, physical. I think he kind of established himself as the no. 2 back. TK [Powell] did a couple of nice things too, but again, we’ve got a lot of progress to make between now and training camp. It starts in the weight room, it starts in the classroom, and this just gives us a starting point for where we’re heading.”
Hughes rushed nine times for 42 yards, Johnson gained 43 yards on six carries and Powell picked up 19 on eight attempts.
The leading receiver was Terry Juniel with three catches for 26 yards.
“He is a really exciting player,” Kugler said. “He has had a really good spring, one of the more productive springs of the receivers. What I’m excited about is he’s a dynamic punt returner. We got to see him do a lot of that this spring. I think he fielded over 100 balls and only dropped two all spring. That’s what we brought him here for, but what we’re finding out is he’s a very capable starting receiver.”
Some of the defensive standouts for the Miners included Kalon Beverly (three tackles, three pass break-ups), Cooper Foster (thee tackles), Brandon Moss (two tackles, one tackle for loss, one interception), Nik Needham (two tackles, one pass break-up), Brendan Royal (three tackles, one sack) and Mike Sota (three tackles).
“All spring, Royal has kind of established himself as a part-time starter. He’s going to be an impact player on the defense,” Kugler said. “Some of the young defensive linemen stepped up today. I saw [Gene] Hopkins got a few sacks in there. Mad Dog [Brian Madunezim] has been having a great spring. Gino Bresolin was solid. And some of the backup linebackers did a really nice job. We were looking for guys that could be backups. They showed us they’re capable backups.
“I was really pleased with the defensive depth going into fall camp if everybody comes back healthy, and offensively we’ll get back Aaron Jones, we’ll get back [Derron] Gatewood, we’ll get back [Hayden] Plinke and we’ll be full force heading into camp.”
The quarterback battle will be rejoined this fall as Kugler termed Johnson and Metz’s play as “up and down” on Friday night.
“I like both of those kids,” he said. “I think they’ve both got a chance. I think we can win with both of those kids, and we’ll look to see what we’ve got to do to evaluate to get better in the fall.
“Mack [Leftwich] is out for the season, we understand that. We’ve got Metz and Kavika, we’ll bring in Mark Torrez, one of the incoming freshmen, and we’ll possibly add to that position between now and the fall. It’s going to be an open competition.”
UTEP football season tickets are on sale now by calling (915) 747-6150. The Miners will tackle a seven-game home schedule that features non-conference matchups with NM State (Sept. 3) and Army (Sept. 17).
