Dress rehearsal night has arrived for the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys.
Tech will wrap up its 2011 preseason football camp with its annual Green and Gold Scrimmage tonight (Tuesday, Aug. 23) at Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field. The scrimmage will begin at 6 p.m.
There will be a back to school pep rally inside the stadium beginning at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
More than 130 Wonder Boys reported for the start of fall practice on Aug. 10.
Two weeks of workouts have given Arkansas Tech’s offense a chance to sharpen its understanding of new offensive coordinator Dean Norsworthy’s system, which will feature a tight end and is expected to be more balanced than the pass-oriented attack the Wonder Boys utilized in recent years.
Steve Mullins, who is beginning his 15th season as Arkansas Tech head football coach, said that he will look for improvement in the passing game during the Green and Gold Scrimmage.
“Offensively, at times we did a very good job running the football,” said Mullins after the Wonder Boys’ first major scrimmage of the fall on Saturday, Aug. 20. “I was not pleased with the passing game. We were out of sync. At times the quarterbacks played well and other people didn’t. Sometimes the protection didn’t hold up. Sometimes the wide receivers did not run the correct route. That’s to be expected, but as a coach you’re still not pleased with it.”
Defensive coordinator Jeff Byrd has spent the last two weeks training the young men who must help his unit replace nine departed starters from 2010.
“We’ve got to make sure we stay in our gaps,” said Mullins of the defense following the Aug. 20 scrimmage. “Our guys have to understand that in a high-pressure defense if you have 10 people do it right and one person is in the wrong gap, all of a sudden it’s a 40-yard run.”
The Wonder Boys will begin the 2011 campaign with a Great American Conference contest against the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Kickoff at Convoy Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3.
The game will be broadcast in the Arkansas River Valley on KWKK 100.9 FM, and the broadcast will be streamed over the Internet at www.athletics.atu.edu.
Click here to view photos from the Aug. 20 scrimmage.
Click here to read about where the Wonder Boys are picked to finish in the Great American Conference football standings during the league’s inaugural year.
Click here to read about six Wonder Boys who were selected by a scouting service as “players to watch” in 2011.
Click here to learn more about Arkansas Tech football.
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