FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 11, 2019) – The NAU football team took practice inside the Skydome on Thursday afternoon, which marked the eighth workout of spring drills for the Lumberjacks.
The practice was the final for NAU prior to its scrimmage on Saturday, April 13 at Chandler High School, which is slated to begin at approximately 1 p.m. MST. The event is open to the public and admission is free.
Chandler High School is located at: 350 N Arizona Ave, Chandler, AZ 85225
Thursday's practice began with specialized positional drills and larger group activities as the Lumberjacks kept working on the fundamentals while continuing to install new schemes on both sides of the ball.
Both the offensive and defensive sides had bright spots during the full team periods, which saw a focus on the running game. The offense broke a few big runs and the defensive unit countered with a number of big stops during the action.
Highlights
- Senior running back Joe Logan ripped off a nice run of 20-plus yards during the early team period.
- Sophomore Max Michalczik made a nice grab over the middle during the skeleton drill.
- Senior quarterback Case Cookus showed nice touch on a 25-yard completion to Tommie Dorsey.
- Senior linebacker Tristen Vance tipped away a pass for the defense during the skeleton session.
- Junior Carson Taylor highlighted the final team period for the defense with an interception that he took 40 yards up the sideline for a touchdown.
- Senior Brandon Lawless made a big hit on a run stop.
- Taylor combined forces with Keenan Mitchell for a sack. Mitchell added an additional sack a few plays later.
- Freshman quarterback Gino Campiotti connected for an 80-yard score with Stacy Chukwumezie.
- Logan added a tough 20-yard touchdown run on one of the final plays for the offense.
Quotable
Offensive Line Coach/Running Game Coordinator
Bob Connelly
"They (the offensive line) are a great group of kids. They are working hard and are coming to work ready to go each day. They are having great meetings leading up to each practice. My goal for them is to just get a just a little bit better each and every day. I feel like we did that today. It is a great day for you to interview me as I feel we had our best day of the spring. We had a lot in the run game and protecting the passer today. The game is starting to slow down. We put a lot of new concepts in. Obviously philosophically and schematically, we are different than the previous staff, so there is a lot of new learning going on with the offensive line. Our defense presents a lot of difficult situations for an offensive line group, simply because they are in and out of three-down fronts and four-down fronts and it changes everybody's responsibility on each and every play."
Up Next
The Lumberjacks head to Chandler High School on Saturday, April 13 for a scrimmage scheduled for a 1 p.m. MST start.
All practices, including Saturday's scrimmage at Chandler High School, are open to the public and free to attend.
