The first scrimmage of Nevada football fall camp saw early dominance by the defense before the offense stepped up in the latter stages on Sunday at Mackay Stadium.
“Both sides (offense and defense) had their moments,” head coach Chris Ault said. “We’ll have to look at the tape to see some of the intangible things that we need to see. But overall, I liked the hitting. The hitting was crisp.”
The Wolf Pack ran about 90 plays in the scrimmage and the defense was stellar early on. The defense forced three straight three-and-outs in the first three series. It was on the verge of making it four straight before redshirt freshman quarterback Colin Kaepernick galloped 59 yards on a fourth-and-4 play for the first touchdown of the day.
Kaepernick and sophomore Nick Graziano the two quarterbacks vying for the starting position saw about equal playing time during the scrimmage. Kaepernick did more with his feet rushing three times for 80 yards while Graziano did most of his work through the air with 162 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-25 passing.
“It came together for us at the end,” Graziano said. “We pulled together as a unit and got the ball down the field.
The offense scored four touchdowns including three scores on the ground. Sophomore running back Brandon Fragger had a 23-yard scoring run and redshirt freshman Vai Taua had a 4-yard plunge in addition to Kaepernick’s run.
The fourth score was a 39-yard strike from Graziano to redshirt freshman Chris Wellington.
The defense forced four turnovers an interception by redshirt freshman Kevin Grimes and fumble recoveries by senior Erics Clark, junior Jerome Johnson and freshman Brandon Marshall.
The Pack will scrimmage twice more this month before concluding fall camp. Nevada’s season-opener is Sept. 1 at Nebraska. Single-game and season tickets are available by calling (775) 348-PACK or by visiting www.nevadawolfpack.com.
Scrimmage Statistics
PASSING: Nick Graziano 13-25-162, 1 TD, 0 INT; Colin Kaepernick 4-8-41, 0 TD, 0 INT; Luke Collis 0-3-0, 0 TD, 1 INT; Pete Murdaca 2-2-28, 0 TD, 0 INT; Ryan Howard 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 INT.
RUSHING: Colin Kaepernick 3-80, 1 TD; Courtney Randall 9-46; Brandon Fragger 4-30, 1 TD; Vai Taua 7-21, 1 TD; Luke Lippincott 4-14; Brandon Baldwin 1-8; Nick Graziano 1-5; Lampford Mark 2-1.
RECEIVING: Alex Rosenblum 5-50; Marko Mitchell 3-38; Vai Taua 2-9; Mike McCoy 2-7; Chris Wellington 1-39, 1 TD; Andy McIntosh 1-19; Shane Anderson 1-12; Kyle Sammon 1-12; Luke Lippincott 1-11; Tony Maldonado 1-6.
SACKS: Erics Clark 1-6; Adam Liranzo 1-5; James-Michael Johnson 1-5.
TACKLES FOR LOSS: Joshua Mauga 2-3; Dontay Moch 1-3, Thomas Flinn 1-4.
FUMBLES FORCED: Dontay Moch 1; Thomas Flinn 1.
FUMBLES RECOVERED: Erics Clarks 1; Brandon Marshal 1; Jerome Johnson 1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Kevin Grimes 1.
