Graham Shines At QB At Bendict Scrimmage

COLUMBIA, S.C. (BC SID) — The Benedict College Tigers may have found their answer at quarterback, but several other questions remain following Saturday night’s game-style intra-squad scrimmage. Marcus Graham completed 6-of-9 passes for 112 yards and guided his offense to a pair of touchdowns. The white-jersey offense scored three touchdowns and two field goals on the night against the purple-jersey defense. “I thought Marcus and Chris played well, and Teddy at certain times. But Marcus shined today,” Benedict head coach James Woody said. “He’s our quarterback. Just from seeing it out here, he’s our No. 1 guy going into the first game against Virginia Union. Chris will be No. 2 and Teddy will be No. 3 right now. We’ve got to watch the film and see what it looks like, but from what we saw today, Marcus is our man.” The disappointing part of the night for Woody was playing the game without several key players. Woody said about seven players are suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. Among the list of players suspended are both starting cornerbacks – Nick Cousar and Shanan Lee; preseason All-SIAC defensive tackle Dyrell Porcha; senior wide receiver and kickoff and punt returner Emmanuel Houtson; punter Brian Curry; and preseason No. 1 tailback Chris Johnson. “I’m a little disappointed in some of the guys we had to discipline,” Woody said. “We want to have a good-character team with discipline. About seven of the guys we had to discipline and they weren’t allowed to play in the scrimmage. We’re not going to tolerate any nonsense. Hopefully they’ll wake up. Right now, they are suspended until further notice for violating team policy.” Charles Powell had 50 yards on five carries, including a 35-yard burst, the longest run from scrimmage on the night. Tyquan Bazemore showed some power running with 41 yards on eight carries, including a touchdown. Trent Miles had 27 yards on five carries and caught a touchdown pass. “The running backs ran very well. Bazemore ran the ball very well. He’s our starter. Trent Miles did a great job, as did Marvell Tayler. I’m pretty happy. I thought the offensive line played extremely well, the first group. The second and third groups need a lot of work.” The three quarterbacks threw for 222 yards. Thomas was 2-for-7 for 52 yards and Joseph was 3-for-8 for 58 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Junior safety Martin Epps had the only interception on the night. “He’s our quarterback back there in the defensive chamber,” Woody said of Epps. “We can use that experience because we’re very young back there. They’re getting better and better each day and I’m pretty happy with the direction we’re headed.” Defensively, Jayvis Ward had three tackles, including a sack, a tackle for loss, and broke up a pass. “I’m really disappointed in our defense tonight,” Woody said. “We had some holes in the defense. The second offense got too much mileage on the No. 1 defense. We just can’t have that. But they came back and played much better in the second half and shut them down. In the second half, the defense came out to play.” Freshman kicker Eduardo Hernandez, who had to double as the punter, connected on field goals of 37 and 27 yards, and was perfect on all three extra points. He also boomed a 50-yard punt. Much of the scrimmage was also used as preparation for next week’s season-opener against Virginia Union, with both the offense and defense going against the scout teams. “I thought our coaches did a great job of preparation,” Woody said.