Quarterback Joey Harrington completed three out of his four passes for 42 yards.
Tailback Maurice Morris ran five yards in his only carry.
Looking at the numbers of those two, one thing’s clear about the Oregon football team’s first scrimmage of the spring: It was a chance for the reserves to strut their stuff.
The Ducks ended their opening week of spring practice Saturday afternoon with a one-hour scrimmage inside the friendly confines of the Moshofsky Center. Leading the way amongst the back-ups were quarterback Jason Fife and tailback Ryan Shaw.
When asked for his overall assessment of the scrimmage, head coach Mike Bellotti described it as being “okay.”
“We did not plan to play our acknowledged starters a great deal,” Bellotti said. “We wanted to give them a little bit of work but the majority of time spent live this spring will be with our twos and threes to determine who has gotten better, who has elevated their game and should be playing for us.”
Fife took a major step in securing the No. 2 quarterback position behind Harrington by competing seven of 11 passes for 119 yards. Among those completions were a 13-yard touchdown pass to receiver Paris Warren and a 15-yard scoring dart to tight end Willie Walden.
“Jason Fife got an extended opportunity and I thought did some good things,” Bellotti said. “He improved today.”
Two other quarterbacks also received some playing time with freshman Chris Lombardo having a solid 3-for-4 outing for 60 yards. Lombardo also threw for two scores, a 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver Cy Aleman and a 30-yard scoring strike to Gary Daniels. Redshirt freshman quarterback Scott Vossmeyer was incomplete on all three of his pass attempts.
As for the running game, Shaw led all rushers with 33 yards on four carries, while Vossmeyer was the second-highest with 10 yards on two quarterback sneaks. Onterrio Smith, the hyped transfer tailback from Tennessee, was held to seven yards on four carries.
Warren led all receivers with two catches for 49 yards, while Keith Allen hauled in three passes for 46 yards.
Defensively, Bellotti pointed out the play of defensive end Quinn Dorsey and linebacker Wesly Mallard.
Of course, perfection is hard to come by during the first week of spring ball and Bellotti was quick to point out the areas that the Ducks need to improve upon.
“We need to do a better job on first downs — both sides of the ball,” Bellotti said. “If we win the battle of first downs, we have a chance to win the series or the possessions battle. But we can’t give up big plays and it doesn’t matter if it’s first string, second or third string, I’m not tolerant of people walking into the end zone against us.
“I think we need to work a lot on communication, and that’s coaches-to-players and players-to-players in terms of making sure we understand what we’re doing and where our help is,” Bellotti said.
The Ducks will be back to work this week with practices today, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The spring workouts conclude April 28 with the annual Spring Game at Hillsboro Stadium near Portland.
Note: Bellotti announced the signing of another prep player Saturday, defensive back Cory Larsen of Gresham High. Larsen was the Mt. Hood Conference defensive player of the year last fall.