Timmy Chang opens up the playbook and his QB Jarin Morikawa goes 8/11 with a TD pass

When Jackson State’s defense piled up three sacks in the first five plays of Saturday’s scrimmage, it appeared a repeat of last week’s affair was in the cards.

JSU’s offense managed to land some counterpunches this time around, though.

Offensive coordinator Timmy Chang opened up the playbook a bit and the Tigers’ offense rebounded from last week’s lethargic performance with a solid effort on Saturday.

After last week’s scrimmage, Chang said he still hadn’t installed everything into the offense. This time, he came through with some new wrinkles, which mostly took advantage of the aggressive nature of the JSU defense.

“For us, we know they (the defense) are going to give us the hardest looks,” Chang said. “I just wanted to give the kids an opportunity to see what we could do countering a lot of those things they do. The kids did a good job of executing, but there’s still a lot of things we could get better at.”

Receiver Daniel Williams had just one catch a week ago, so there was a point of emphasis to get him more involved.

Williams had a lot of quick passes thrown his way, which allowed him to operate in the open field. He finished the day with six receptions for 82 yards and two touchdowns.

“Coach Chang just put me in the best position to make plays, so I was just taking it one play at a time.” Williams said. “We were up-tempo, and the defense was getting tired, so we just took advantage of it.”

Other than a fumble by running back Derrick Wilkerson down by the goal line, the offense took care of the ball, too.

Quarterbacks LaMontiez Ivy and Jarin Morikawa tossed four interceptions in that first scrimmage, but didn’t throw any this time.

“We put them in better situations,” Chang said. “All those trials and errors, you want them to happen. You can only tell them so much, but until they go through that experience themselves, that’s when the growth starts.”

Ivy completed 15 of 20 passes and finished with two touchdowns to Williams, and he spread the ball around between his backs and receivers.

Morikawa, who was successful on 8 of 11 passes, connected with tight end Tevin Garrett, who broke through some tackles on a 31-yard touchdown pass, which was the offense’s other score.

Receiver Will Golston provided a highlight-worthy catch when he was blanketed by a defender but leaped high to come down with the ball for a 40-yard gain.

The defense, which has had the upper hand against the offense for the majority of camp, had some trouble tackling at times and lacked communication on some drives.

“It was a great day for teaching,” defensive coordinator Alonzo Lee said. “There were some things that happened, that I’m glad happened. There were some things that will bring us closer together with our discipline and things we need to do. I thought we got a little winded today.

“The offense did a great job today … but I think as we come along, I think we got some lessons out of today.”

Three players — corners Robert Porter and Justin Jemison and safety Brandon Maiden — who have been running with the first-team secondary, were held out because of minor injuries.

Offensive lineman Frank Carter and receiver DeSean McKenzie were also among those who were held out.

Contact Antonio Morales at amorales2@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @AntonioCMorales on Twitter.

via JSU offense rebounds in final scrimmage.