April 11, 2007
Stanford, Calif. - The intensity of 2007 Stanford Spring Football continued when the Cardinal hit the gridiron for its fifth practice of the spring on a blustery and cold Wednesday afternoon at the Elliot Practice Fields.
The workout began with a defensive dominated "Oklahoma Drill" featuring one-on-one blocking competitions between the offensive and defensive lines, the wide receivers and the defensive backs and the linebackers against the tight ends and fullbacks.
The teams then ran a pair of 2-minute live periods with quarterback Tavita Pritchard working with the first team offense during the first session and marching the Cardinal down the field for a 30-yard Derek Belch field goal. The drive was highlighted by Pritchard's 23-yard completion to Anthony Kimble out of the backfield. Alex Loukas took over at quarterback for the second drive during the drill and ended up with a one-yard TD sneak. Loukas also had a 20-yard scramble during the run, while completing two passes to Kelton Lynn for a combined 25 yards.
A series of team and position drills spanned the middle of the session before practice concluded with five offensive drives during a live scrimmage. The defense dominated the early portion of the scrimmage as the first three drives ended on interceptions by Carlos McFall and Eric Lorig sandwiched around another drive that stalled after just five plays.
"I just caught the ball when it came to me," laughed Lorig, a converted tight end who claims to have made his first career interception.
"I've been working really hard and hopefully it's paying off," said McFall. "We played really well during the early part of today's scrimmage on defense."
The fourth and fifth series belonged to the offense.
T.C. Ostrander completed 4-of-5 passes for 38 yards and ran two more times for 13 yards to set up a three-yard TD plunge by Kimble to cap the fourth drive.
Loukas was impressive in the day's final series of plays, completing 3-of-5 passes for 54 yards with a 42-yard scoring strike to Stephen Carr wrapping up the day's action and causing Harbaugh to blow his whistle signaling the end of practice.
"I liked the way our offense was resilient and fought back against adversity today," said Harbaugh. "I some things I liked out there. We have a high level of energy and enthusiasm, but I know it takes more than that to win games. We need to keep improving on that energy and enthusiasm and keep finding football players out here that will help us win."
Stanford returns to the Elliot Practice Fields for the sixth spring practice on Friday, April 13 (4:00 - 6:30 pm, PT).