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Tech prepares for second scrimmage

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RUSTON - Louisiana Tech spent most of its 10th spring practice focusing on game plan installation and working on fundamentals as the team practiced in shells in advance of their second spring scrimmage. The team worked out in Joe Aillet Stadium Friday afternoon for over two hours.
The detailed but not too physical workout was designed with the team preparing to hold its second scrimmage of the spring beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday at Joe Aillet Stadium for the 11th session of the spring in what will be a physical scrimmage with more of a game-like feel. The first scrimmage featured eight-play drives regardless of the outcome of the first down conversions while Saturday's session will not have that security built in for the offense.
[Related: Practice No. 10 Notebook]
"Saturday's scrimmage will be a little bit more like a game - if you don't make a first down, they are off the field. They won't have the play segments like we had in the first scrimmage," head coach Skip Holtz explained.
The scrimmage Saturday will give the coaching staff another opportunity to evaluate Scotty Young and Ryan Higgins, two players that are battling in a virtual dead heat for the starting quarterback position. Both have had good and bad moments and Holtz says consistency will be the key to whomever wins the starting job.
"Consistency has been the thing that has been lacking," Holtz said of the quarterbacks. "They both have had some really good days and they both have had some really bad days. Obviously the quarterback position is the hardest … They have to know what 22 guys on the field are doing. It takes a little bit longer to develop that position, especially not having anybody with any legitimate experience there. We really have very little game experience coming back at that position. That is the biggest thing I am looking for is the consistency out of the quarterback."
The first scrimmage also left the coaching staff wanting in terms of energy, enthusiasm and a level of play, something they were very quick to show the players after the two-hour scrimmage session ended. Since then, the team has bounced back with an exemplary level of play in the following two practices and Holtz expects to see the same Saturday morning.
"I think it is a standard that we talked about practice number one," said Holtz. "It is a standard and it is an expectation level of what we are going to do when we take the field with the effort and the energy that we are going to play with. I think they understand what we want a little bit better now than they did after the first scrimmage. We will see where we are. They have had two better practices after the scrimmage last Wednesday and let's see if we can carry it over into the scrimmage tomorrow."
Saturday's scrimmage is open to the public and will be the team's 11th spring session out of a maximum 15 allotted by the NCAA. The spring practices wrap up on Saturday, April 13 with the T-Day Spring Game at 1 p.m.
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