University Southern California Trojans
USC Conducts Final Intrasquad Scrimmage of Fall Camp
August 24, 1999 | Football
Aug. 24, 1999
LOS ANGELES - USC tailback Frank Strong ran for a pair of short touchdowns and quarterback Carson Palmer threw two TD passes, while the Trojans' special teams returned two blocked punts for scores and nailed three field goals to highlight a 100-play intrasquad scrimmage at the Coliseum on Tuesday (Aug. 24).
It was Troy's final scrimmage before its Sept. 4 opener at Hawaii. USC will practice through this Friday (Aug. 27) at UC Irvine, then return to campus for game week preparation.
"It was important to do a game-like scrimmage before our first real game," said USC head coach Paul Hackett. "A lot of that awe' is taken away. Overall, it was a good day, although there were too many penalties (15, 11 by the offense). I liked the tempo. The defense is coming along quicker than I thought, but I wish I could say we'd be further along offensively than we are. And I liked the kicking game, except for the blocked punts."
Strong, seeing his first major action of the fall camp after being sidelined most of the time with a sore knee and thigh, scored on 4- and 3-yard runs. Overall, he had 7 carries for 21 yards.
Palmer, who was 11-of-14 for 133 yards on the day, hit tight end Antoine Harris for a 4-yard TD and freshman wide receiver Marcell Allmond for a 34-yard score.
The scores off of blocked punts were by safeties Frank Carter (31 yards after safety Ifeanyi Ohalete got to Jacob Rogers' boot) and Rick Luce (40 yards after wide receiver/quarterback Matt Dalton knocked down Mike MacGillivray's attempt).
Kicker David Bell connected on field goals of 29 and 26 yards, while fellow kicker David Newbury hit a 46-yarder (he also had a 42-yarder blocked by defensive lineman Ryan Nielsen).
Among the tailbacks, Sultan McCullough led all rushers with 64 yards on 15 carries, while Chad Morton added 25 yards on 6 tries and Jabari Jackson had 17 yards on 4 attempts.
Backup quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst was 11-of-19 for 80 yards and No. 3 John Fox was 2-of-5 for 19 yards.
Wide receiver Windrell Hayes had a game-best 4 catches for 42 yards, Morton and Strong each had 3 grabs for 22 yards, and the freshman trio of Allmond (50 yards), Steve Stevenson (34 yards) and Kareem Kelly (26 yards) all had 2 receptions. Wide receiver R. Jay Soward caught a 12-yard pass on the game's opening play, then was sidelined after slightly spraining his knee several plays later.
Defensively, seven Trojans posted 5 tackles each: safeties David Gibson (including 2 sacks) and DeShaun Hill, cornerbacks Kevin Arbet (2 for losses, plus 2 deflections) and Darrell Rideaux, linebacker Markus Steele (with a fumble recovery), and defensive linemen Todd Keneley and Bobby DeMars. Defensive lineman Shamsud-Din Abdul-Shaheed recovered a pair of fumbles.
USC INTRASQUAD SCRIMMAGE STATISTICS (8-24-99)
RUSHING TCB YDS AVG TD LG Morton 6 25 4.2 0 6 Palmer 5 -20 -4.0 0 2 Van Raaphorst 3 -19 -6.3 0 -4 McCullough 15 64 4.3 0 21 Strong 7 21 3.0 2 5 Jackson 4 17 4.3 0 6 Dalton 1 0 0.0 0 0
PASSING PA PC PI PCT YDS TD LG Palmer 14 11 0 .786 133 2 34 Van Raaphorst 19 11 0 .579 80 0 22 Fox 5 2 0 .400 19 0 12 Dalton 4 2 0 .500 15 0 8
RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD LG Soward 1 12 12.0 0 12 Hayes 4 42 10.5 0 15 Morton 3 22 7.3 0 16 Strong 3 22 7.3 0 19 McCullough 2 0 0.0 0 6 Allmond 2 50 25.0 1 34 Stevenson 2 34 17.0 0 22 Dalton 1 7 7.0 0 7 An. Harris 1 4 4.0 1 4 Jackson 3 6 2.0 0 9 Pierson 1 2 2.0 0 2 Nickels 2 15 7.5 0 8 Kelly 2 26 13.0 0 18 Swanson 1 1 1.0 0 1
PUNTING NO YDS AVG LG MacGillivray 3 130 43.0 56 Rogers 2 52 26.0 40
KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG TD LG Morton 1 15 15.0 0 15 Kelly 1 20 20.0 0 20
DEFENSE TAC LOSS/YDS SAC/YDS DFL FF/FR Steele 5 0/1 Morgan 4 Arbet 5 2/11 1/10 2 Rideaux 5 Keneley 5 Hill 5 Collins 3 2/7 1/7 Moreno 3 1/1 Nielsen 4 1/4 1/4 1 Richard 1 1 Ohalete 3 1 Ford 1 Gibson 5 2/13 2/13 Simmons 2 1/8 1/8 1 DeMars 5 1/4 Carter 2 1 Shapiro 1 Daye 3 Reese 2 Clark 1 Dickerson 2 Murray 2 Horwitz 1 Abdul-Shaheed3 1/8 1/8 0/2 Abdul-Malik 1 Prosser 2 Dalton 0 1 Wallace 1 Graham 1 M. Fletcher 2 Team 1 1/4SCORING
Carter 31-yard run with blocked punt
Bell 29-yard field goal
Newbury 46-yard field goal
Bell 26-yard field goal
Strong 4-yard run (Newbury kick)
Harris 4-yard pass from Palmer (Bell kick)
Luce 40-yard run with blocked punt
Allmond 34-yard pass from Palmer (Newbury kick)
Strong 3-yard run (Bell kick)
