Football Southern Conference

Wofford Concludes Spring Drills

SPARTANBURG -- A 58-yard touchdown run by Gabriel Jackson highlighted tonight's Wofford football scrimmage as the defending Southern Conference champions concluded their spring practice.

A rising junior from Dahlonega, Ga., Jackson broke two tackles at the 12-yard line on his way to the only touchdown of the night. He finished with a team-high 77 yards on five carries. Nick Robinson added a 33-yard field goal for the other score. His kick was set up by a 30-yard run from fullback Mike Jones.

The scrimmage closed with an end zone interception by defensive back Alex Love. James Drury had a sack and fumble recovery from his defensive tackle position. The Tulsa, Okla., native was sidelined by injury as a freshman last season.

"Offensively, we struggled tonight," Wofford coach and 2003 Eddie Robinson Award winner Mike Ayers said. "Part of that is because we were playing real good defense.

"We were playing a lot of true freshmen on the offensive line (the last two scrimmages were held without three injured starters) and the defense created problems for us. I thought our quarterbacks performed well under the circumstances. Some of our running backs showed they can be explosive.

"I think we'll be fine as a football team. We still have a ways to go mentally as far as getting some young guys ready on both sides of the ball. We also have to get some guys back healthy. I like the way we got after it all spring. The kids worked hard and it allowed us to get a bunch of looks on film which will help us as a football team."

Quarterbacks Jeff Zolman, Trey Rodgers and Josh Collier were a combined 12-of-22 in the air. Ten different Terriers had at least one reception. Wofford also had 14 players with at least one rushing attempt.

The 2004 Terriers will return all but nine players off last year's squad that captured the SoCon title and advanced to the Division I-AA national semifinals with a 12-2 overall record and 8-0 league mark. Wofford welcomes back nine starters on offense and eight on defense.