VALDOSTA – Complete with a surprisingly large turnout of fan support, Valdosta State football’s Black-Red spring game had plenty of thrilling moments in a 24-all tie.

The Black team, led by freshman quarterback Sammy Edwards, led 24-10 on a 24-yard field goal with 7:18 left before Team Red mounted a furious comeback.

Senior quarterback Ivory Durham hit Isaiah Wilson for a pair of touchdowns – a 9-yard connection with 4:01 left, followed by a 35-yard strike to tie the game 3 minutes later.

Head coach Tremaine Jackson summed up his first spring game as head coach to the media after the game.

“Blazers won, man. That’s always good when the Blazers win,” Jackson said. “I’m really excited about the different situations we were able to get just by putting this scrimmage on. The format that we had – we got the ebbs and flows of a game, we got a comeback, we got plus-40 work, we got minus-25 work, fields goals were incorporated, we had a guy drop a punt which we simulated that punt would’ve been blocked so we gave some yardage.

“Everybody had to do their job and execute at a high level and if you didn’t, it cost you and normally you don’t get that in a spring game. We were able to get that. Hats off to our coaches, hats off to our players, our administration for putting this on the way that they put it on. This was a great night.”

Jackson added: “I’m excited about our community. We had a really vibrant crowd. I don’t know if they stayed the whole game, but man, these folks came out and supported us tonight so it was a great night for the Blazers.”

THE FUTURE

Edwards has been impressive for the Blazers this spring, performing well in the March 26 scrimmage and Friday’s spring game. The freshman from St. Augustine, Florida completed 12 of 20 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown while carrying the ball five times for 26 yards with a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

Led by Edwards, the Black team had 15 first downs and 307 yards of offense.

“It was a tough transition going from the second string to maybe the top guys on our team,” Edwards said. “Me and Council Allen took an opportunity with that this week, maybe threw three or four times. He was our first round draft pick so I think it was very important getting to work with him and I think it was awesome.”

Allen was Edwards’ top target Friday night, catching seven passes for 91 yards and a touchdown. Past Allen, Keonvay Clark caught two passes for 73 yards, including a 64-yard reception that nearly went for a touchdown. Former Thomasville High School running back Tan Gelin caught one pass for 18 yards in the game.

“Growth,” Jackson said when asked what he saw from Edwards running the show. “I think he needed that for him. It’s not just when Ivory leaves. God forbid something happens to Ivory like it did in the national championship. You’ve got to be able to go to the next guy.

“Quarterback is that position where you only get one until you need another one. After seeing tonight, I’m really confident in him and I hope he continues to grow and grow. People thought he couldn’t run, but he ran – scored a rushing touchdown. He opened a lot of people’s eyes tonight that he’s here to compete, he’s here to stay and he’s a Blazer through and through.”

GROUND GAME

Both teams combined for 239 rushing yards in the game, with several familiar faces and a couple of newcomers getting touches.

For the Black team, Bud Chaney led the way with eight carries for 36 yards. Senior Seth McGill, one of the Blazers’ three 1,000-yard rushers from a season ago, had five carries for 29 yards while Gelin added four carries for 25 yards.

On the Red side, Ivory Durham had 10 carries for 58 yards, including an electric 40-yard scamper that ignited the crowd.

Jamar Thompkins had six carries for 30 yards with a touchdown catch in the red zone for good measure.

Former Lowndes High School star running back Travis Tisdale made his return to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium after two years at the University of Kentucky. Tisdale had five carries for 25 yards.

“We’ve been that staple for VSU as a whole (the last three years),” McGill said of the running back position. “All of the guys in the running back room, they work hard. They come out every day in practice and just try to get better every day.”

RED SCARE

Despite having starting quarterback Ivory Durham, the Red team trailed much of the spring game.

Unlike the Black team, which came out with rhythm and cohesion right out of the gate, the Red team took a while to get going. Once they did, however, the game shifted the opposite way in the fourth quarter.

“We got down slow,” Durham said of the Red team offense. “We came out not fast and the Black team came out fast; that’s all it was. They played hard. In the second half, we came back and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to buckle down and put some points up,’ and that’s what happened.”

Durham went 15 of 24 for 154 yards and three touchdowns – two of which going to Isaiah Wilson in the fourth quarter.

Running back Isaiah Flowers made an impact for the Red team with four catches for 39 yards in the game.

It wasn’t all bad for the Red team as it finished with 13 first downs and 272 yards of offense.

“We had great energy from both sides of the ball,” Durham said. “Black team, they came out…they played great. I was actually proud of them. Sammy Edwards stepped up and he’s the future of the program so once I’m gone, it’s his time. I was really proud of him.”

THE BLACK SWARM

An emphasis for Jackson and the Blazers’ coaching staff has been bolstering the team’s defense.

For much of last season, the Blazers’ vaunted Black Swarm roared but without much depth, the defense lost much of its ferocity down the stretch as injuries began to pile up and the level of competition continued to climb.

Linebacker Jaylen Norwood starred for the Red team, with 11 total tackles including seven solo stops. Linebacker Julian Baldi added seven tackles of his own, including one tackle for loss.

The Black team finished with three sacks as former Thomas County Central product Jaylen Dunbar had a team-high seven total tackles and a sack. Linebacker Michyl Shaw added six tackles.

“We’re fitting the run game better. We’re understanding how to leverage the football better. We’re tackling better – it looked like we tackled better tonight than we did Scrimmage 1,” Jackson said. “The essence of defense is tackling. They understand that now. … I’m really excited about the defense and you know me, I always get on them a little bit more just because we’ve absolutely got to be right on that side of the ball so we can be successful.”

‘AIR RAID, BUT TOUGHER’

From the run and gun offense of Kerwin Bell to the Air Raid offense of Gary Goff, the Blazers have boasted some of the most productive offenses in the country with two national championship game appearances in the last three seasons to show for it.

Under Jackson, the plan is for the Blazers not only to sustain its prolific offense, but to be tougher and more physical on that side of the ball as well.

“We changed everything offensively, from terminology to how we do things, how we practice – we changed it all,” Jackson said. “They’ve been resilient. They’ve done an awesome job of buying into and being fully submitted to what we’re doing and the Blazer offense right now. That’s always special when you’re new and you take over a really successful offense. We were the No. 2 offense in the country. These guys want to be No. 1 and they’ve bought into this offense to be No. 1.

“I’m really excited about our offense. Coach (Rick) Bowie and his staff have done an awesome job. You saw O-linemen tonight pushing the pile. Go back and watch, there wasn’t a lot of that so we’re changing the culture and how we do things as an offense and trying to be tougher. We’re Air Raid, but we’re tougher. Those guys have instilled that mentality in those kids.”

‘OUT-ENTHUSE PEOPLE’

One thing that stuck out for the Blazers on both sidelines was a high level of enthusiasm and energy throughout the game. Both teams’ offensive and defensive units bounced around and kept each other fired up and reacted accordingly to big plays.

“They’ve been competing since Monday,” Jackson said of the team after the game. “We did a (spring game) draft on Monday and these guys have been geeked up and fired up on social media, been talking noise to each other all week. We couldn’t even get our regular practices done really because of the energy level that they had.

“What we often talk about is how we can out-enthuse people and even when we’re wrong, our energy still makes us right. They did an awesome job of that tonight. It might not have went how everybody wanted it to go, but again, everybody got better. Our coaches got better. We had graduate assistants calling plays tonight – they learned a lot. Our coordinators were head coaches tonight – they learned how to call timeouts in different situations. Their energy, they had to get their team going. That energy and that enthusiasm is going to pay off big for us.”

The Blazers open the 2022 season at home against the Keiser University Seahawks Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.