CEDAR CITY, Utah, Aug. 18 - Southern Utah's football team conducted its sole full scrimmage of the fall Saturday and those in attendance got both a good look at what the 2012 team will look at and what it may look like in the future.

Senior quarterback Brad Sorensen completed 11-of-15 passes for 89 yards with one touchdown and one interception, while true freshman signal caller Austin Young completed 6-of-9 tosses for 89 yards, also throwing for a score and being intercepted once.

Fans also got a good look at the experienced running backs as well as the relative newcomers, as senior Henna Brown carried five times for 25 yards and caught a pass for nine more, while freshmen Malik Brown and Christian Taele had big days. Brown led all running backs with 10 carries for 47 yards, including a nine-yard touchdown run, while Taele carried eight times for 42 yards and would have had better numbers if his last two carries hadn't been stopped in the backfield by the future version of the Thunderbird defense. Brown also had a 12-yard reception.

The four quarterbacks - also including junior JJ Mayer (1-3, six yards) and freshman Mitch Dahlen (2-2, 22 yards) - spread the ball around to Southern Utah's receiving corps, completing 19 passes to 15 different receivers. The receivers were led by sophomore Easton Pedersen, who had a team-high three pass for 22 yards, while senior Cameron Morgan had just one catch but it was a 27-yard TD grab from Young. Sorensen's TD toss went to JC transfer tight end Derek Whitmore, on a 15-yard hookup.

Junior Griff McNabb, another transfer from Utah, had perhaps the most exciting play of the day on a 67-yard punt return for a touchdown. He also caught two passes, and was one of just three T-Birds, along with Pedersen and junior running back Mike Tagliaferri (2-24), with more than one reception.

Defensively the Thunderbirds rested senior pre-season all-American tackle Cody Larsen to give some younger players experience, but it was another senior, linebacker Ricky Clark, who along with junior linebacker Randall Nygren, co-led the way with five tackles. A pair of true freshmen were next on the tackles list, however, as Zak Browning and Mike Needham each tallied four stops.

The biggest defensive plays of the day all came from younger players, however, as freshman defensive end Lloyd Stephens had a sack and a tackle for loss and sophomore end Austin Anderson had a sack for a safety, and sophomore cornerback Gordon Garrett had two interceptions and three tackles.

"Those balls were both tipped but I was happy to be able to intercept them, as anyone on our defense would be," Garrett said, sharing the credit for his catches. "I just try hard to be in position to make plays."

Secondary Coach Demario Warren gave Garrett more credit than he gave himself, however, noting "It takes you driving to the ball every play, then you're in the right place at the right time. [Garrett] deserves a lot of credit, he drove to the ball, he got to the position if the ball did get tipped up he was able to make the play, then he made the plays."

Some of the credit also goes to Warren, defensive coordinator Justin Ena pointed out.

"We have a great secondary, led by Coach Warren," Ena said. "He's done a good job with[Garrett, who is] starting right now because Tyree Mills kinda rolled his ankle a little bit. So [Garrett] came in just like he always does - last year at Weber State he started when we had another issue like that - he came in and actually dominated, did a great job for us, we're excited about him."

Both Ena and Warren said they were fairly pleased with where the defense is at this point in the fall, but also emphasized that there's still work to be done.

"They've worked hard, especially this second week, they've tried to find their stride and have been pretty consistent, which is good, but at the same time there's so much we've got to do," Ena pointed out. "Assignment football, guys forgetting where they've got to line up, things like that, you watch it, you're critical about it as coaches of course, but at the same time these guys have got to take it upon themselves to be the coach on the field while they're out there and performing their tasks.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Brad [Sorensen will] do a great job. He's going to make sure those guys are in the right place and we need leaders on our defense to do the exact same thing. They need to do their very best to pick up the intensity when it drops off," Ena added.

"We're young, we've made a lot of mistakes this fall but I think we've improved," Warren said. "We'll see in about 10 days now how they respond but I think we've got a good group of guys, they're willing to learn, they're willing to work, and that's all you can ask for."

-- SUU --