Football scrimmage notes...

(All photos taken by Chris Bradley).

On Saturday, I got up early (yes, 9 a.m. on a Saturday is early for me) and headed over to Thompson Field for E-town's first scrimmage of the year against Cedar Crest.

There really isn't a whole lot to report on. I mean, it was only the first scrimmage, but it was nice to be back at Thompson and see some people hitting each other again. Football, welcome back, old friend. The Den missed you. The teams started things out with running 10 plays each on offense, and then rotating through second string and JV teams to get everyone 10 plays.

On the projected first team varsity offense's possession, the running game looked solid, but I could still see some rust in the passing game. Nothing major, just typical preseason stuff you'll see at any level of the game. Give them a few weeks to get some chemistry and there is definite potential there. QB Kyle McNeil looked like he saw the field well. Again, though, E-town's running game (notably Conrad Heisey, Shane Rosenberry and Mitch Weidman) looked good, hitting holes quickly. And if the running game looks good, that means the O-line is playing well. You can see the size difference from last year's line.

Defensively, the first team looked fast and aggressive, similar to last year. They go sideline-to-sideline well and forced an eventual interception by Steven Nunez on Cedar Crest's first possession.

Zach Myers broke a touchdown run from more than 60 yards in the varsity offense's second possession.

After the JV got some work in, they sent the first teams back out again for two 12-minute running quarters, with first downs and all – more like a real game than the first 10 plays.

E-town punted on it's first possession, but Shane Rosenberry had one of the biggest hits of the day on third down. McNeil rolled out to his left to throw and Rosenberry (who plays FB) stayed in on protection. A Cedar Crest lineman broke free and had McNeil sized up, but Rosenberry came from nowhere to lay him out, garnering some "oooohhs" from the crowd.

When Cedar Crest had the ball, Alex Kirchner became a menace. The Falcons had good starting field position at the 20, but Kirchner lived in the backfield, and came up with a third down sack to stop them.

On the first play for the Bears in their second possession, the Bears ran an inside reverse to Weidman, who broke a long 80 yard TD run. I have a feeling that Weidman will be used mainly the way the Bears used Jordan Hallman last year. Weidman is a little bigger than Hallman and maybe not quite as fast (yet, but he's only a junior), but he has tons of upside.

That's about all I had time to stick around for, but it felt nice to be back around some football again. Hey, only 11 days until the first regular season game. It'll be here in no time.