By Kevin Turbeville
Sun staff writer

JONESBORO — Arkansas State’s spring game ended with an injury, a mild concussion suffered by cornerback Walter Moody as he made a tackle to stop a fourth-down pass play.
The way spring football drills unfolded for the soon-to-be Red Wolves, it was no surprise to see another name added to the injury list on the final snap.
“We’ve got so many guys out. We’ve got 18 players out and a little over half of those guys are starters,” Arkansas State head coach Steve Roberts said. “It’s hard to gauge the progress that we made as a football team. We’ve got to get well and we’ve got to have a great fall camp in order to get better as a team.”
Seventeen players were unavailable to participate in Saturday’s spring game at Indian Stadium, a contest the defense won 52-36. Counting Moody, four more players were technically unable to finish the scrimmage.
But only one player, walk-on quarterback Neely Sullivent (knee), has an injury that will affect his availability when preseason camp opens. The rest are expected to be ready to practice in August.
“Any time you want to be out there with your teammates. Going through live drills, it’s always fun,” said starting quarterback Corey Leonard, who missed spring drills while recovering from shoulder surgery. “Any competitor is going to want to (play). That’s been tough, the whole spring has been tough, but those guys came out here and played great.”
Injuries aside, Roberts found several things to like about Saturday’s spring game, in particular the big plays made by the defensive unit.
The defensive unit forced five turnovers, including Darius Glover’s 74-yard interception return for a touchdown, and also rolled up five quarterback sacks. Safeties Evan Van Dolah and M.D. Jennings also had interceptions to help the defense take advantage of the modified scoring system.
Redshirt freshman end Dorvus Woods had three tackles (two for negative yardage), two quarterback sacks and a pass deflection. Redshirt freshman linebacker Michael Adams had a team-high seven tackles.
“Overall as a defense I thought we played extremely well today,” Van Dolah said. “We had some big plays, some key turnovers and we took advantage of it. Overall as a whole I think we played very well today.”
All three interceptions were thrown by junior transfer Brice Beck, who joined the program this spring. Glover turned his interception into the longest play of the day, cutting in front of a short pass for the pickoff and then sprinting down the sideline to the end zone.
“He had a great play, just stepped in front of the ball and really showed some surprising speed there to run away from everybody,” Roberts said. “He had a great jump, great vision to get in front of that ball, great hands to pick it off, and made it count as a touchdown.”
The No. 1 offense also had its moments behind senior Travis Hewitt, the only scholarship quarterback available this spring.
Hewitt, who led ASU past Florida International last season when Leonard was injured, completed 16-of-30 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns Saturday.
“Travis had a really good spring. He had a great week this week and he finished off very strong today,” Roberts said. “He had a couple of drops or he may have had a couple other touchdowns. He showed a lot of poise, a lot of competitiveness, and did a great job for us. I’m real proud of him.”
Hewitt said he became more consistent this spring, adding that has been one of his problems in the past. He was pleased with Saturday’s performance aside from a couple of throws.
“I had a pretty good day. I had a couple of bad balls,” Hewitt said. “We’ll look at that on film and get that corrected, but overall I thought I was pretty consistent.”
Hewitt hooked up with fullback Jeff Blake on a 5-yard pass that produced the offense’s first touchdown, a score that came during a red zone session where the ball was placed on the 25-yard line. Tight end Trevor Gillott also made a tough 18-yard touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone during the red zone work.
Wide receiver Jahbari McLennan, a junior college transfer, scored the last TD on a diving 41-yard reception. Prodded by receivers coach Tyler Siskey, McLennan was determined to make up for a dropped pass on the previous possession.
“I came in the next drive and I told myself I needed to sell out. I hadn’t been doing what I wanted to do,” McLennan said. “The next thing I knew, that ball was in the air. ... I got out there, dove and the next thing I knew I was in the end zone.”
McLennan finished with 52 yards on two receptions. Gillott had four receptions for 44 yards while Brandon Thompkins had five catches for 43 yards.
Plans called for ASU to use two walk-on tailbacks, David Terrell and Jaurivis Halford, but Terrell went out with a lower leg injury on the second possession. That prompted Roberts to play No. 2 tailback Preston Brown, who has been limited because of a groin strain.
“We weren’t going to use him at all and probably shouldn’t have, but it wasn’t anything that he was going to hurt any worse,” Roberts said. “He was willing. He wanted to go and we were able to get him out there and get him a few reps.”
Brown finished with 42 yards on 13 carries and two receptions for 13 yards. Halford had 12 carries for 50 yards, including a 31-yard carry.
Junior tailback Reggie Arnold, who rushed for 1,000-plus yards in each of his first two seasons, missed spring practice while recovering from minor shoulder surgery. Redshirt freshman Derek Lawson, who has had a lot of carries this spring, was out Saturday because of a hamstring strain.
Junior kicker Josh Arauco had a perfect day, connecting on field goals of 35, 46, 38 and 44 yards.
“Overall it was a pretty good day for our program and a pretty productive spring ball,” Roberts said.
Saturday’s practice was the last of 15 in the spring. ASU opens the 2008 season Aug. 30 at Texas A&M.

kturbeville@jonesborosun.com