Tarleton State University Athletics

STEPHENVILLE - Tarleton showed a little bit of everything in its second spring football scrimmage at Memorial Stadium Friday night.

The Texans will show a lot more in next Saturday's 11 a.m. Purple-White Spring Game.

Friday was all about situational football, and the Texans went through countless scenarios. The offense started with their backs against the wall at their own three-yard line for the first few series, and eventually worked on scoring in its goal line sets from the opponents' three-yard line.

Tarleton even practiced its four-minute offense, working from its own 30 to get first downs and melt away the closing minutes of a game with a thin lead intact.

About the only thing the Texans didn't go through was a hurry-up offense.

"We saw a lot of things and got a lot of game-type scenarios on tape to use as a teaching tool," Tarleton head coach Cary Fowler said. "I'll have to look closely at the film, but all-in-all I think we accomplished a lot tonight."

Three different quarterbacks left an impression on the head coach, two with their arms and one with his legs.

Aaron Doyle, a redshirt freshman from Evant, earned some style points when he broke away from a potential sack and scrambled to the one before leaping over the final defender at the goal line for a 15-yard touchdown.

The run was similar to the TD by Scott Grantham in double overtime of Tarleton's 57-56 playoff win at Texas A&M-Kingsville last fall.

"I love it," Fowler said. "That's one of the things Doyle brings to the field is his ability to make plays with his feet. We want that out of our quarterbacks."

Doyle also faked a handoff and kept the ball around the left side for a 34-yard run and had a one-yard TD plunge on third-and-goal.

Jackson Crawley, a redshirt freshman from Dallas, had the best-looking scoring pass of the night, a 19-yard arial to Kevin Adkins.

Junior-to-be Casey Paige directed the first-team offense most of the way and also made some big plays, including the longest of the night - a 50-plus yard pass to Arthur Buckingham on a deep cross route that got the offense fired up after the defensive units dominated the opening minutes of the scrimmage.

"Aaron and Jackson both made some big plays and Casey did a lot of good things," Fowler said of the quarterback race. "I will have to look closely at the film before saying which one looked the best (Friday)."

The defensive units also had bright spots, forcing two turnovers when the offense started from deep in its own territory, including a fumble that was recovered in the end zone for a defensive touchdown. Another turnover came on a forced fumble when the offensive units were working in goal-to-go situations.

Blair Johnson made it four turnovers on the night when the safety leaped and snagged an interception near the middle of the field.

"That's something I've been pleased with all spring is our defense's ability to force turnovers," Fowler said. "The turnovers you saw tonight weren't so much giveaways as they were takeaways."

One player who continues to be impressive this spring is tight end Will McLane, a 6-4, 252-pound redshirt freshman from Smithson Valley. He had a pair of big first-down catches.

"Will has had as good a spring as anyone," Fowler said. "He's one of our best football players right now."

Fowler has pledged to make the tight end position a big part of the Tarleton offense next fall, and McLane isn't the only player at that spot who has been productive this spring.

Tanner Maher, who coaches were hoping to have a breakout season last year before he suffered multiple injuries, had a pair of catches in the scrimmage. Fowler says Bradley Peschke has also been productive throughout the spring.

Evan Robertson and Raphael Sneed each had big plays at running back. Robertson's touches were limited, but he scored on a 13-yard run. Sneed had several runs of five yards or more, scored on a two-yard goal line plunge and drew cheers from the group of more than 100 spectators when he cut back to the middle of the field after catching a screen pass near the right sideline and darted to a 35-yard gain on third-and-10.

"Sneed ran hard and looked good in the open field. He's another guy who has come a long way this spring," Fowler said. "We didn't work Evan too hard tonight. He could have done a lot more, but we already know what he can do."

The only real setbacks have come along the offensive line, where a few returning starters are still rehabbing injuries sustained last fall, and others have been hurt during spring ball.

"Our offensive line did a good job (Friday) considering there were only six or seven of them at full strength and they didn't get much rest," Fowler said. "But the ones who were on the field tonight got a lot of reps, and that can only help them down the road."