Damian Williams Returns for Second Scrimmage
The second scrimmage of fall camp took place this morning for the Bobcats and it featured the long awaited return of senior grad-transfer quarterback Damian Williams. It was the fall camp debut for Williams who has been suspended for almost three weeks due to academic issues.
"Hard to see much, he didn't get many snaps," Texas State coach Everett Withers said of Williams' first practice back. "Glad to have Damian back with us and glad he is part of the 105. Hopefully he gets in the competition and starts to battle for playing time."
With the return of Williams, freshman Jaylin Nelson has been moved from quarterback to running back.
"That's a move that we've been contemplating doing as we move forward," Withers said. "We were talking about doing that and giving him an opportunity to do some things at the quarterback position but also do some things at running back. Just seeing him being able to run the ball the way he runs it, it allows us to do some things.
"(Nelson) just adds to the depth at that position and I feel like we are better at that position since we've been here."
As a whole, Withers liked the performance and effort of his offense but said there was room for improvement defensively.
"Felt like we had a good day today," Withers said. "Our defense got tired during the end and our offense stepped up and did some good things. I saw a lot of good things from our quarterbacks today. Receivers made some big plays and even our running backs. I think we blocked better up front today. We're growing slowly but surely. It's a day-to-day process."
"I'm pleased on the offensive side but we've got some things to fix on the defensive side, especially on the back end."
Redshirt junior tackle Tryston Mizerak played right tackle today while freshman Nic Foster has taken over at left tackle. Withers said he thought his offensive line played better today than the first scrimmage last Sunday but there is still work to be done.
"Not where we need it to be but it was better today," Withers said. "I thought we got on the right guys better today. We get a lot of movement up front and do a lot of things up front on defense so they have to be ready to make a bunch of calls to get it blocked right. I feel they did much better today than they did at the scrimmage last Sunday."
The scrimmage was extra long today as it will be the last one for the Bobcats this fall camp.
"We had a pretty long scrimmage today, we tried to push them as hard as we could go today," Withers said. "It will be our last big scrimmage before we play. Next week we'll start getting to a little bit more game reps and try to prepare for the season."
Texas State media will be held tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature all of the coaches and nine players - sophomore center Aaron Brewer, sophomore defensive tackle Jordan Mittie, senior tight end Gabe Schrade, junior receiver Tyler Watts, senior linebacker Gabe Loyd, sophomore linebacker Bryan London II, senior linebacker Easy Anyama and junior kicker James Sherman.
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