WEST LONG BRANCH — Monmouth football wrapped up its spring practice with its annual Blue-White Showcase, a two-hour, 100-plus-play scrimmage that initially pitted the first-team offense against the first-team defense before the second and third teams got a chance to shine against each other.
The scrimmage was the 14th and final allowable spring session that began back on March 26th.
“I thought we grew a lot and made a lot of progress,” Kevin Callahan said, entering his 32nd season as Monmouth’s head coach. “A lot of the younger players without game experience got a lot of reps and playing time this spring, and I think that will pay dividends as we take the next step and get into the summer and into the fall.
“In my mind, spring is always about development,” Callahan added. “You don’t necessarily need to see what you know your top players can do; you need to bring the backups and other guys along and see what they can do, and spring ball did just that for us.”
University of Maine transfer Derek Robertson lined up behind center with the first team and showed why he was a CAA Honorable Mention selection last season with the Black Bears when he threw for 2,933 yards and 25 touchdowns. On his first possession of the scrimmage, he was 5-of-6 for 36 yards. He was 19-of-27 for 168 yards for the scrimmage, including a 42-yard touchdown pass to Max James, a James Madison/Lackawanna transfer. Of his eight incompletions, two long passes were dropped, one was dropped in the corner of the end zone and intercepted, and one was tipped and picked off.
In the two-minute drill, he went 5-for-11 for 45 yards and showed his athleticism, picking up 14 yards on a designed quarterback keeper.
“Derek did a good job,” Callahan said. “This was his 14th practice, so he has slowly digested the offense. We didn’t hold back this spring; we got everything in pretty much and Derek did a good processing it.”
Sone Ntoh capped off Robertson’s first scoring drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Last season, Ntoh’s 14 touchdowns for the Hawks ranked third in the CAA and 12th nationally. Ntoh finished with 37 yards on nine attempts in the scrimmage.
It should be noted that all statistics for the scrimmage are unofficial.
Junior quarterback Enzo Arjona was 6-of-8 for 28 yards before going 3-of-4 for 70 yards, including a 20-yard completion to T.J. Speight and a 43-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wideout Tra Neal in the two-minute drill. Neal led all wide receivers with six catches for 93 yards and a touchdown on Sunday. He was a first-team All-State wide receiver at Frederick High School in Maryland and could be a sleeper for a starting position. Speight, the most experienced returning receiver (19-181), finished with six catches for 39 yards.
Senior quarterback Frankie Sevino had a short but impressive outing, completing 4-of-6 for 60 yards, including a 20-yard scoring strike to sophomore wideout Josh Derry, who impressed in the scrimmage with five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown. Derry is in the mix for a starting spot, as is junior Gavin Nelson, who finished with five catches for 37 yards.
“We have a great group of receivers, a lot of guys with speed, and a lot of guys who can catch the ball,” Robertson said. “We’ve obviously been blessed with some pretty good receivers in the past, but these guys are up for the challenge. They’re motivated, and they want to do well. I love throwing to those guys and we’re hoping now to just build that connection going into the summer then the season.”
Sophomore quarterback Zack Hilo completed 3-of-6 passes for 19 yards, with all three completions going to true freshman tight end Chase Wilkins, an early arrival on campus, who has impressed in spring camp.
Junior running back Makhi Green and sophomore Rodney Nelson flashed star potential. Green showcased his speed on a 27-yard run, and Nelson broke tackles with some nifty moves on a 12-yard burst. Green finished with 48 yards on seven carries and had three catches for 22 yards, while Nelson picked up 30 yards on six attempts. Fifth-year senior Jamir Barnes added 24 yards on eight carries.
Green’s run set up a 50-yard field goal by senior Vincenzo Rea that had distance to spare.
“Makhi’s really quick, and he’s had a phenomenal spring,” Callahan said. “We intentionally tried to hold his reps down today and tried to balance all the carries between the four running backs and rotate them through. They’re all good, talented backs. We got four really, really good backs that we can use situationally. We can use Makhi in a lot of different ways: spread him out, motion him out of the backfield, and try to match him up with a linebacker.”
The starting offensive line for the scrimmage included highly regarded Purdue transfer sophomore Andre Oben at left tackle, graduate student Will Argo at left guard, sixth-year player Ed Gatling at center, senior T.J. Lewis at right guard, and fifth-year senior J.T. Cornelius at right tackle.
Defensively, end Justin O’Bannon was all over the field. The fifth-year senior had two sacks and at least two quarterback pressures, while junior defensive end Miles Mitchell added a sack. Both O’Bannon and Mitchell flashed potential as pass rushers last season, but they will be counted on heavily to get after the quarterback this season.
“I think I had a good day; I was on top of my assignments, and I had a good day pass rushing and a good day against the run,” O’Bannon said. "I think we got better every single day this spring and took a step forward every day; we made a lot of strides. Edge-wise, we have gotten better pressure, pass rush-wise. And definitely on the interior as well, with guys using their hands more and being more explosive. It’s going to be exciting to see this year.”
“O’Bannon did a good job today,” Callahan said. “He really showed his quickness and his ability off the edge.”
Graduate student linebacker and captain Ryan Moran had a sack and tipped a pass from Robertson that senior defensive back Kadeem McKnight intercepted. Senior linebacker Andrew Conklin intercepted a dropped pass in the end zone that should’ve gone for a touchdown while falling out of the end zone.
Senior defensive tackle Isaiah Rogers added a three-yard tackle for loss, and junior linebacker Charlie Sasso had a bone-jarring hit on Wilkens, who somehow held onto the ball. Sophomore cornerback Israel Clark-White defended a pass, sophomore linebacker Henry Gerstner added a sack, sophomore defensive back Donovan Fey recorded a TFL and junior Connor Farrell had a sack.
“Although we’re young, we have a lot of talent,” new defensive coordinator Lewis Walker said. "We’re going to take our lumps, but we’re going to continually get better. The product everyone is going to eventually see from this Monmouth defense is going to be exciting. Our job is to be able to get the ball back to the offense as many times as we can.”
Summer camp starts four weeks before the Hawks first game of the 2024 season, August 29, at FCS opponent Eastern Washington, which finished 4-6 overall and 3-5 in the rugged Big Sky Conference last season.
"I thought today was a good day of give-and-take and back-and-forth," Callahan said. "We only worked with two groups today, so some of the threes and fours were in with the twos - the second group - and a lot of the twos and threes were in with the ones. So, as far as what our number ones can do, this probably wasn't a good indication of that, but it was key to the development of our younger guys. I thought we showed the ability to make plays, even though we intentionally held reps down with a lot of the guys, kind of the known guys."
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