By: T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — In a Spring Black and Gold Game delayed and ended prematurely because of lightning in the area, the Black team scored the lone touchdown to take a 7--0 in a game that was called with 37 seconds remaining in the second quarter Saturday afternoon at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium.
But first-year head coach Mickey Joseph felt he saw what he needed to see and his Tigers did what they needed to do before having the game end early.
"With the rain delay, I didn't think the focus was there on one side of the ball," Joseph said. "But I thought that they competed. I thought both teams competed well on the defensive side of the ball.
"That I was happy about. But I wasn't happy about the offense. But at the end of the day, we are evaluating talent and just trying to figure out what we're going to do with the roster. And we'll be doing that this week."
Joseph said Mother's Nature dampening the spring game won't affect those evaluations.
"We had 14 practices, so we got the look we wanted," Joseph said. "We wanted to come out today and keep it clean, we wanted them to execute today and we wanted them to have fun today. We didn't want to put any extra pressure on them."
Joseph was pleased with the pass rush he saw, especially from the Gold team.
"
Lane Lewis, and Issac (Washington) did well," Joseph said. "We've got to get some weight on Lane, and Issac, who came through the transport portal (from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte), looked pretty good. But we've got to get more. We've got to get more kids in here that can rush the passer."
Another player who caught Joseph's attention was defensive back
Eric Randall, a transfer from Louisiana Tech.
"I thought he flew around," Joseph said. "I've got to go back and look at the film and make sure he was in the right spots, but I thought Randall played with a lot of effort. And I thought he played with a lot of energy.
"And I expect that out of him because he brings that. We've just got to get him to do the right thing every play."
Needing to reload GSU's running back corps after losing GSU's top two rushers from last season to the transfer portal, Joseph believes a pair of transfers — Jaden Handy from Ole Miss and Ke'Travion Hargrove from Memphis — will play big roles for the Tigers next season.
Handy scored the lone touchdown of the contest with 49.3 seconds left in the first half on a 16-yard run up the middle.
"They're both A-gap runners," Joseph said. "I had to tell Handy, 'Just trust what you see. Trust your eyes and when you see it, hit it.'
"And Bull (Hargrove) is Bull — he's going to be a good back for us. I kind of limited him today — had him on a pitch count because I've seen enough. My job now is to get them better through the summer."
Myles Crawley and
Julian Calvez, who both saw significant playing time for the G-Men last season with Crawley getting the starts, were the Black and Gold Game quarterbacks with Calvex directing the Back team and Crawley guiding the Gold offense.
"I like where Myles and Julian are at right now," Joseph said. "We're definitely going to bring another quarterback out of the portal. We're looking for someone that's going to take care of the football and make good decisions.
"But I won't make a decision on a starter until the week of the Lafayette game (GSU's season opener) because I think we need to continue to feed them the system and see how much we can trust them. You've got to be able to trust your quarterback. You've got to make good decisions and take care of the football. If you don't do that, then I can't play you."
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