Ohio Spring Game

White squad defeats Green, 20-14, in OU spring game

By NICK BROCKMAN
Special to The News


ATHENS, Ohio — The annual Ohio football team’s Green and White spring game seems to raise the same question year after year and Saturday afternoon’s game continued the trend: Who will be next season’s starting quarterback?

Quarterbacks Boo Jackson, Brandon Jones and Theo Scott each saw considerable playing time, but no one separated himself from the pack as the White squad triumphed 20-14.

Coach Frank Solich said it is still early and he is not concerned there is no defined starter yet.

“When you look at the quarterback play, I think that the talent is there,” Solich said. “Obviously we have to get consistent and in getting consistent I think we can put on the field a pretty good offensive football team.”

Scott began the game’s first drive for the Green team, but threw an interception to safety Donovan Fletcher on his first pass attempt. On the very next drive Fletcher once again intercepted Scott for a 21-yard return.

While Fletcher was being interviewed on the field after the game Scott interrupted to jokingly laud Fletcher’s accomplishments.

“He did a good job,” Scott said. “He’s a ballplayer. This guy is good.”

Along with his two interceptions, Fletcher led all players with seven tackles.

Later, Scott said he knew what caused his interceptions.

“I just tried to do something different and different didn’t work,” Scott said. “Y’all seen it. I just went back to my normal game, played the game, and just relaxed.”

Despite the two picks, Scott recovered to end the day on 7-of-12 passing for 102 yards for the Green team.

Scott’s teammate Jackson threw for the most yards of all Bobcat quarterbacks on the day by completing 16-of-20 passes for 190 yards. Jackson, a junior-college transfer from El Camino College (Calif.), has had just four weeks to study Ohio’s offensive system to prepare for the spring game.

Jackson admitted he struggled at first, but said he is becoming more comfortable with Ohio’s set.

“The first week I was here I was bobbling snaps,” Jackson said. “I looked like a freshman coming out of high school, but then as the weeks progressed I caught on real quick.”

Solich also acknowledged Jackson’s progress.

“(Boo’s) done an excellent job of picking up the system,” Solich said. “He’s been able to pick it up. I feel good about what Boo has accomplished in a very short period of time.”

While Jackson may be trying to unseat Scott, Jackson said they are good friends and Scott has shared his football knowledge with the newcomer.

“He’s teaching me a lot of things,” Jackson said. “I sit back and watch what he does and learn from him because he’s ahead of me right now and I just have to learn from what he’s doing.”

Jones, not to be ignored in the quarterback search process, completed 7-of-11 passes for 82 yards and one touchdown.

On the rushing half of the offense running back Chris Garrett paced both squads with 79 yards on 14 carries including a 1-yard touchdown run for Green.

Ohio now awaits its fall camp and will play its first game of the season on Aug. 30 at Wyoming