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Offense Shines in Spring Game

For the greater part of Spring practice, the highly-touted defense had pretty much rendered the offense ineffective. But something happened during Saturday's Blue-White Spring football game at Greene Stadium.

The offense suddenly found itself under the direction of Brian Johnson and Floyd Haigler by putting together several impressive scoring drives that left first-year head Carey Bailey pleased.

"Overall, I was extremely pleased," said Bailey. "I was especially happy with the play of the quarterbacks. BJ and Haigler did a good job of executing. They made some great decisions out there. It was good to see that."

Johnson, a 6-0, 190-pound senior from Gardenia, CA ran the first set of series and engineered time-consuming drives that featured a balance of good running and sharp passing. Johnson started the last five games of the season and led the Bison to a 4-1 finish down the stretch.

Haigler, a 6-2, 195-pound junior from Orangeburg, SC, was equally impressive, especially in the passing game as he consistently completed short passes to Michael Harper and Brandon Sherman.

"Haigler got most of the snaps by design," said Bailey. "We have a good group of wide receivers. Harper and Sherman made some good plays and (Frank) Berchie and (Dion) Townley ran well."

Harper is a 6-1, 190-pound sophomore from Stone Mountain, GA who came on strong late last season while Sherman is a 5-10, 180-pound sophomore from Winston-Salem, NC who played sparingly last season. They are among a group of nine talented wide receivers who will compete for playing time in the Bison "Spread Offense."

Berchie is a 5-9, 210-poiund senior from transfer (Akron) from Falls Church, VA who saw little playing time last year as a reserve behind seniors Keon Coleman and Antoine Rutherford.

Townley has been perhaps the biggest surprise of the spring. A 6-1, 190-pound senior from Detroit, MI who served as a reserve defensive back last season, switched over to running back.

"He is a big powerful back who loves to play football," says Bailey. "He has certainly made a case for himself."

On the defensive side, it was the usual suspects sans a couple of injured performers who are rehabbing. Senior linebackers Danual Pearce (83 tackles) and Robert Dowdy (69 tackles) , junior linebacker Byron Patrick, defensive end Endor Cooper (8.5 sacks) and senior cornerback Thomas Claiborn (57 tackles) all made their presence felt. Missing were All-American senior defensive end Rudy Hardie (shoulder injury), senior cornerback Randell Means and junior safety Rickey Jackson.

Bailey added that sophomore Dennis Wiehberg, who handled both punting and placekicking duties last season, will be the designated punter and that sophomore John Mendoza will now do the bulk of the place kicking after being relegated to kicking off last season. Both performed well in the Spring game.