Saluki football says good bye to spring with scrimmage

With the Saluki offense six yards from paydirt, James Cloud began to bark at Joe Allaria.

The former SIU linebacker taunted and trash-talked his former teammate from the right sideline as Allaria split out wide.

“You won’t get off the line. You won’t get off the line,” Cloud chirped.

Moments later, Allaria broke free from a defender and caught a touchdown pass in the front right corner of the end zone from quarterback Chris Dieker.

And Cloud, who tallied 57 tackles and 7.5 sacks in his senior year at SIU, could only watch.

“I’m a defensive player at heart. I love (Allaria), but I’m rooting for my defense,” Cloud said moments after the touchdown grab.

Dieker, who will be a junior when next season begins, completed 12-of-22 passes for 72 yards, the touchdown to Allaria and an interception that linebacker Kyle Walker returned for a touchdown.

When he learned of Cloud’s sideline antics, Dieker said he was even more pleased to find Allaria for the score.

“Anything to shut James Cloud up, I’ll do it,” Dieker said with a laugh.

Dieker’s connection to Allaria was one of four touchdown passes thrown by a Saluki quarterback in Saturday’s spring game at McAndrew Stadium. The scrimmage was split into four quarters that focused on aspects of situational game management, and an overtime period that simulated a two-minute drill.

Freshman quarterback Paul McIntosh opened the scoring on a 43-yard deep toss to wide receiver Marc Cheatham. McIntosh, a Navy transfer and former Indiana Mr. Football, completed 9-of-10 passes for 101 yards. Fellow freshmen Taylor Beasley and Bobby Brenneisen each threw for a touchdown. Beasley hooked up with Luke Standiford on a 35-yard touchdown pass and Brenneisen, who will be a redshirt sophomore when the football season begins in August, threw a 59-yard touchdown bomb to B.J. Thompson.

McIntosh and Brenneisen will continue their battle for the No. 2 quarterback position when fall camp kicks off in August. The Saluki signal callers will get more competition once the summer drills start with the arrival of St. Louis-area quarterback Kory Faulkner, who will enter as a true freshman.

“Trying to learn the offense is really the accomplishment of the spring,” McIntosh said of getting a good grasp of the offensive playbook. “Everybody here helps you adjust well. The coaches and other quarterbacks did a great job.”

As was the case for much of last season, the SIU rush defense was nearly impenetrable. The Salukis return 10 of its 11 starters from last year’s Missouri Valley Football Conference championship team and allowed only 85 rushing yards on 36 carries.

Despite stifling the Saluki rushing attack, linebacker Ryan Patton said he was not pleased with the defensive unit’s overall performance.

“You want to come out and your goal is to always be a dominant defense. We just gave up too many yards in passing situations,” Patton said.

One of the four stand-out linebackers of head coach Dale Lennon’s 3-4 scheme, Patton said he is excited to see what the offense will be able to do against opposing defenses.
At this stage, Lennon said he is happy with what the team had accomplished during its spring camp.

“At this point we got what we wanted. We put our offense and defense in certain situations,” said Lennon, the Valley’s 2008 Coach of the Year award winner. “Sometimes they responded well and sometimes they didn’t. And what you want is a little give-and-take in the spring game.”