Georgia Tech holds final scrimmage

By Jeff Haws

For the AJC

In Georgia Tech's final scrimmage before the T-Day intra-squad game on April 24, there was reason for both optimism and pessimism on offense.

On one hand, all three quarterbacks -- Tevin Washington, David Sims and Jordan Luallen -- got their team into the end zone at least once. Washington, playing with the first team while Josh Nesbitt sits out the spring with an injury, led his group to two touchdowns and a field goal in five series.

Washington's draw run up the middle in the first series resulted in a 39-yard touchdown, one of the longest of the day. He said it was a play he knew might work from what he had seen during the week.

"There was a big old hole once I cut back inside," Washington said. "I've been looking at it myself on film, how they kind of freeze up on me. So when I turned around today, I looked back to the inside, and it was there."

That was the first of four runs of 29 or more yards, two of which were made by Washington. He also had pass plays of 31 and 41 yards.

The 41-yarder was a screen to Anthony Allen, who did most of the work himself, breaking tackles as he ran through the middle of the secondary.

It was indicative of the morning for Allen, who was difficult for the defense to bring down.

"I think this was his best day [of spring practice]," coach Paul Johnson said. "He had some nice runs inside and made a nice run on the screen.

"I thought he played better today than he's played. I'm sure he's getting comfortable [after moving from A-back to B-back]."

The biggest problems for the offense came on penalties and in the red zone.

Ten penalties were called on the offense, coming on a mixture of false starts and holding calls. Three of those came on consecutive plays and pushed the first-team offense back out of scoring position and force a 51-yard field-goal attempt, which Scott Blair made.

Toss in an interception returned for a touchdown by Rod Sweeting and another interception in the end zone by Mario Butler, and it wasn't all roses for the offense.

"We had too many penalties and turned the ball over," Johnson said. "Had way too many penalties, and the ball was out. A lot of it's the younger guys, but the ball's still out.

"One time with the [first-team players], we tried a play-action pass; they turned the guy loose, and they get a 20-yard sack. Followed that up with back-to-back penalties."

The sack was one of two on the day, and it was junior defensive tackle Jason Peters who ran down Washington.

Peters, who added two other tackles for a loss, said those sorts of plays feel good, even in April.

"Every time we put our hands down on that line, our aim is to beat the person in front of us," Peters said. "Stop the ball; that's the only reason we step on that field."