Beth Pahl/The Siskiyou
The Red team (dressed in white) scored five touchdowns through the air and two on the ground Saturday.

Southern Oregon football took the Raider Stadium field Saturday for the 2007 Raider Spring Game and got an idea of where work is needed for the upcoming season.

In a game where the scoring was as hard to follow as a biochemistry lecture on riboflavin, the Red team (offense) beat the Black team (defense) 57-31.

The passing game was the brightest spot for second-year head coach Steve Helminiak’s offense. Sophomore quarterback Casey Mitchell had a great day through the air. He completed 15 of his 21 passes for 248 yards and four touchdowns. His first score was on a pass to the corner of the end zone. Senior receiver Kevin Holtzman made his way under the lob and made the catch while diving out of the end zone. Two of Mitchell’s touchdowns came consecutively from 40 yards out during the situational phase of the game. The first was to Holtzman as he streaked down the left. Holtzman caught the ball, but fumbled on the one-yard line and then recovered it himself in the end zone. The next play was a carbon copy of the previous one as sophomore Steve Jorgensen made the end zone snag. Mitchell then made a nice throw on the run to senior Jamey Whitehead for a nine-yard touchdown pass in his next series.

Newcomer junior J.C. Hunsaker has assumed the backup quarterback role on the squad and showed some good signs. He made a couple of great throws under pressure in his performance in which he went 10 for 22 for 104-yards. He also threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Eddie Griffin. The Shasta Junior College transfer provides sorely needed depth at the quarterback position.

Holtzman and senior Tim Greenidge played well and appears to be the leader of the offense. Holtzman made four catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns while Greenidge had four grabs for 86 yards. Helminiak is excited about his receivers.

“Timmy is going to be a go-to guy for us,” said Helminiak. “He’s a real good athlete, catches the ball extremely well, has a great attitude, works hard in the weight room, does well in the classroom. He’s exactly what you’re looking for in a football student athlete.”

Helminiak added that Holtzman will be a major target for Mitchell and will be a team leader with a great attitude.

The defensive front seven was another strong point showcased on Saturday. Nearly every run play seemingly had three defenders in the backfield swarming on the ball. The stout defense made things tough for the running backs as the Red squad managed only 97 yards on the ground. First-year Defensive Coordinator Stacy Collins is happy with his squad’s defensive pressure.

“I thought we did a pretty good job on first down, getting some second and third and long situations,” said Collins. “Now we’ve got to be able to capitalize on those situations.”

The reason there was not more capitalization is the lack of a solid defensive secondary. Receivers were often open targets and the defense was especially susceptible to the deep ball. Collins says there is much work to be done.

“There’s some technique things we’ve got to change,” said Collins. “There’s personnel we have to look at and we’ll go from there because it was way too easy to go over the top of us today.”

The big play of the day from the secondary was a 55-yard interception return by speedy freshman Danson Cappo. Cappo broke up two passes and had three tackles to go with the game’s lone turnover. Freshman safety Sam Higgins led the game in tackles with eight. Junior linebacker Damario Watson registered seven tackles, sophomore safety Matt Markham had six, sophomore defensive lineman Dan Harvey made five tackles and senior linebacker James Williams had four tackles and the only sack of the game.

Although the running game did not register much for numbers, the running backs played well. Junior Patrick Preyer ran for 60 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown was scored from 14 yards out on a run up the middle where the Red team rarely found success throughout the day. Senior running back Shane Van Zant and freshman Gordon Grochowsky also looked good, but had minimal production due to a lack of running room. Helminiak says the starting running back job is up for grabs.

“There’s not a clear-cut starter coming out of this game,” said Helminiak. “I think the three of them are going to battle it out in the spring and we’re adding a heck of a tailback in Josh Tabor and I think he’ll be in the mix as well.”

The offensive line, missing senior Jake Purcell, has some holes and Helminiak has recruited some young players who he hopes will remedy the problem.

“Offensive line-wise, there’s a lot of worries,” said Helminiak. “That’s why we’ve recruited some big young men on the offensive line. They’ll be a huge, huge impact on the run game. We feel we addressed it in recruiting, but we don’t have veteran depth there.”

Helminiak is in his second year of trying to bring the once dominant SOU football program back to respectability. He took over a team that went 1-9 in 2005 and knew he needed to make some changes.

“The three things that I noticed immediately were attitude, consistency and communication,” said Helminiak. “The attitude throughout the program was poor. There was a lot of finger pointing. A ‘you versus me’ mentality and that was something we addressed right away. Our whole first year was really dedicated to becoming a team and learning what it was to be all on the same page. I don’t think there were real good open lines of communication between player and coach and player and player and so on. Our players know at this point in time that if there’s any concerns they have, whether it’s academically, athletically, socially, that they can come see me. I think different players were treated in different ways. You have to be real consistent in how you treat your kids and we’re doing that. You actually have a higher expectation for your better players.”

Helminiak seems to have the program moving in the right direction. The team is showing signs of improvement all-around and some consistency in personnel would no doubt help. Helminiak is happy with his current coaching staff, which has been like a revolving door, including three defensive coordinators in the last year. If he can get his staff set for the long term, and continue recruiting quality players, the Raiders of old could be just around the corner.