Sanders leads solid offensive output

Richmond Sanders cheated on a beautiful Friday afternoon at Woodward Field.

But, as the saying goes, it’s only cheating if you get caught, and nobody caught Sanders.

The Eastern Washington University senior-to-be wide receiver scored two impressive touchdowns during a controlled 45-play scrimmage that capped the second week of spring football practices. That highlighted a day when the offense was much improved over its performance during the first scrimmage.

“I think it’s because of practice,” Sanders said. “Coach (Paul) Wulff tells us to come to practice ready to work and I think over the spring we’re going to get better every week.”

Sanders scored on a 25-yard reverse around the right end. Later, split out left, he caught a pass at the line of scrimmage from quarterback Erik Meyer, bounced off of defense back Brandon Keller, reversed field and went 18 yards down the right sideline.

Despite wearing a no-contact blue jersey, Meyer threw a block to help Sanders get into the end zone.

“Meyer will throw a block for anyone,” Sanders said. “He’s a pleasure to have, a team captain and a leader, he shows by example.”

Then the truth came out about how Sanders managed to elude the defense.

“I feel like I’m OK,” Sanders said. “I don’t practice that much because of classes. I’d like to get out a little more and practice, I want to get just as good as my teammates. I want to grow with them. I was pretty pleased with my performance but you can always get better.”

That means while his teammates have been working, Sanders has been taking it easy. In other words, cheating.

“That’s for sure,” he said, laughing. “For the last two weeks I’ve had fresher legs than those guys.”

But it was a big lift for the Eagles to have their offense make big plays. They average 4.9 yards a play after getting 2.6 on 61 plays last week.

“The offense did look better, but we put the players in situations where that was going to happen,” Wulff said. “It’s real common in spring football. It’s typical probably everywhere you go across America. The first week of practice the defense usually has the upper hand and the second week the offense makes some strides. And the third week, like I just told the players, is a big week. That’s the week in the spring where we make a lot of progress.”

The offense finished with 261 total yards, 156 of which came from the No. 1 unit. The No. 1 defense had three three-and-outs against the No. 2 offense.

Sophomore Toke Kefu scored on a 1-yard plunge and Oregon State transfer Ryan Cole scored on a 13-yard run. Star receiver Eric Kimble had a 33-yard catch and sophomore tight end Tom McAndrews had a 26-yarder.

Safety Nick Denbeigh and linebacker David Eneberg led the No. 1 defense with five tackles. Backup linebacker Jake Young had two of the five sacks that cost the offense 25 yards.

“The defense came out a little flat but the offense really stepped up this week,” senior defensive tackle Garrett Quinn said. “We came back a little bit at the end of it. The intensity was there on both sides of the ball but the offense had the better of it. We have to work on our tackling a lot more.”

The offense and defense were short-handed with about a dozen players sitting out with minor bumps and bruises.

Four receivers, a tight end and both fullbacks were out for an offense that is focusing on replacing both starting tackles.

“We have confidence in each other,” Sanders said. “We know the gaps that we’re missing guys are going to step up and fill the holes. We all have the same goals and that’s to win the national championship and everybody’s going to give their best to achieve that.”

Tackle was the thinnest position on defense, with Quinn and senior Harrison Nikolao taking most of the snaps.

“We’re not really too concerned about it. We have a few guys nicked up … we have guys coming in,” Quinn said. “Harrison and I need the extra work. We weren’t really getting after it at first. We were a little hyped up our first day back on Woodward. I think we just need to focus more and I bet next Saturday we come out a lot more crisp.”

The Eagles have their third scrimmage at 11 a.m. at Woodward. The spring concludes with the Red-White game two weeks from today at 2 p.m.

“We’ve done pretty well,” Wulff said. “We’re excited about the fact that we continue to make progress everyday. At the same time, it’s kind of like the end of the first week of two-a-day practices – our players’ legs are a little tired.

“They’re a little fatigued and aren’t quite running around as fast as they normally do.”

Everyone except Sanders, that is.