Indiana University Athletics
Spring Football Practice Report - April 11
4/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 11, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana completed its second to last regular spring practice of the season on April 11 in Memorial Stadium. The Hoosiers maintained their standard practice schedule starting out in position drills, followed by seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 action. The Hoosiers will complete the spring campaign with the annual Cream and Crimson intrasquad game on April 15 at 4 p.m. in Memorial Stadium.
The offense came out strong in seven-on-seven. Redshirt freshman wide receiver Brandon Walker-Roby had an acrobatic 30-yard catch between two defenders from redshirt junior quarterback Blake Powers. Towards the end of the seven-on-seven match up, redshirt freshman quarterback Kellen Lewis drilled a 35-yard pass to wide receiver Terrance Turner.
Both sides of the ball stepped up for the 11-on-11 drill. Redshirt freshman Demetrius McCray proved to be a dynamic duo with two explosive 50-yard touchdown runs. Senior linebacker Jake Powers made a statement for the defense with two sacks on the day, while redshirt junior safety Aaron Mitchell added a touchdown-saving tackle for the defense at the 10-yard line.
As spring practice winds down, players on both sides of the ball are anxious to impress the coaching staff and Hoosier fans at Saturday's spring game. Senior wide receiver Lance Bennett may be entering his fourth season at Indiana, but he is making his spring debut.
"This is my first spring game in three years. I missed them all because of knee surgery, so this really means a lot to me as the first time to play in the spring," Bennett said. "I really want to show something at the wide receiver position and help us get a gel and some more confidence going into the summer."
Bennett agrees with head coach Terry Hoeppner's assessment that the team is light years ahead of where it was this time a year ago.
"Coming into spring ball we had a lot of young talent, and even though this isn't the season, and this isn't really a game, all of this still gives them experience," Bennett said. "I think we've shown a lot of improvement, and I think that's something to look forward to. I think this is going to be a good preview for the fans to see how we'll be this season."
After sitting out the 2005 campaign as a redshirt, freshman Josh Bailey is eager to see some game action.
"This game means a lot to me, especially as a redshirt freshman. They expect the redshirts to really step up and play," Bailey said. " So this is really our opportunity to step up and show them we can do it. We've really worked hard over the practice season, we've gotten
