In most cases, a scrimmage is met with little to no enthusiasm from fan bases. There’s no scoreboard, no real opponent, and nothing on the line in a scrimmage so many people chalk it up to a “why bother” mentality. Now chalk up hosting a scrimmage at midnight on a Friday after fans have had a long work week in the scorching Arkansas heat and odds are very few will show up. The Mansfield Tigers are used to beating the odds though and so are the Tiger faithful as a hoard of fans entered the Jungle just before midnight on Friday, August 4th to catch an early glimpse of the Tigers in action.
Mansfield’s football program has had a lot of changes in the past couple of months. They have seen a new head coach, new defensive coordinator, and unlike last season, Mansfield has twice as many sophomores as they do juniors and seniors combined. With all of the newness and inexperience, speculation as to what the fans would see was at an all-time high. There may have been speculation from some fans, but the Tigers knew what they had all along and showcased it under the bright lights in the dead of the night. With strength and conditioning being one of Coach Overton’s main focuses, Mansfield started off their night in the weight room hyping up each other and racking up maxes before heading to the field.
The scrimmage was set at ten play series for both the first-string and second-string offense against their counterpart defense. The label of first string and second string may sound like one is greater or less than another, but it’s more of a play on words in the scrimmage as multiple players rotated in and out often allowing the coaches to see things from players that might have been missed in practices. The field was set to give the groups 30 yards to score while spotting the ball on downs along the way. The Tigers first string offense scored three times in the first four plays in the scrimmage using both the pass and run game along the way. Not bad for a group of young men learning an entirely new offense in just a couple of months. Although this feat was pulled off against their own teammates, it was still impressive as Mansfield’s second defense isn’t a slouch. After the first ten plays, the squads swapped sides of the ball but the on-field action didn’t skip a beat. The Tigers first-string defense only allowed one score in their ten plays showing that their defensive prowess is still fully intact.
While the Tigers did their job of impressing on the field, the fans definitely pulled their weight impressing the players and coaches as roughly half of the home stands were full of spectators. Not a bad turnout for a midnight scrimmage, not bad at all. The Tigers will have one more scrimmage, but this time it will not be against themselves. The bar will be raised as Mansfield hosts Mena on August 15th for a final preseason showdown with the 4A Bearcats.
