Spring game highlights: Louisville’s Jackson throws 8 TD passes

Louisville: Quarterback Lamar Jackson threw for 519 yards and eight touchdowns, leading the Red team to a 73-7 victory over the White team during the Cardinals’ spring game.

Jackson completed 24 of his 29 passes, including an 85-yard strike to James Quick toward the end of the second quarter. Jackson capped the half with a 54-yard pass to Jamari Staples, his third touchdown pass of at least 40 yards.

The White team’s backfield of Jeremy Smith and Malin Jones combined for 125 yards on 12 carries and one touchdown. Jones punched in the lone offensive score for the squad, with a 65-yard scamper less than a minute into the third quarter.

Quick paced an explosive day for the Red team’s receiving corps, leading the way with 152 yards on five catches and one score. Jaylen Smith also had five receptions and finished with 99 yards and one touchdown.

Tight end Cole Hikutini — the only other player with five receptions — was on the receiving end of Jackson’s first two touchdown passes, an eight-yarder and a seven-yarder. He had 75 receiving yards.

Eastern Kentucky: The Maroon team defeated the White squad 35-33 in the Colonels’ spring game at Roy Kidd Stadium.

Running back Kentayvus Hopkins ran for 41 yards and had a pair of touchdown runs. Connecticut transfer quarterback Tim Boyle threw TD passes to Dan Paul and Devin Borders. Boyle threw for 139 yards, and Bennie Coney had 66 yards passing in his one quarter of play.

Morehead State: Lawrence Jones ran for three touchdowns and Brent Holman added two more as the Eagles’ offense edged the defense 37-33 in their spring game.

Braylyn Cook starred on defense with a pair of interceptions and blocked kick. He also broke up three passes and made two tackles.

Jones, who missed last season because of an ACL injury, finished with 71 yards on 12 carries. Holman gained 60 yards.

Boston College: The Maroon Team topped the White Team 6-2 in a low-scoring spring game.

Sophomore quarterback Darius Wade was 13-for-19 for 181 yards while Patrick Towles, a graduate transfer from Kentucky, was 2-for-4 for 13 yards and ran the ball twice for 10 yards. Towles threw the ball more, but several plays were called back for penalties, the Boston Globe reported.

“Obviously, Darius and Patrick are taking all of the reps,” Coach Steve Addazio said. “I think they’ve both done a great job. I thought that they both threw the ball really well today.”

Towles’ first pass traveled nearly 50 yards downfield, but fell incomplete.

“Beautiful pass,” Addazio said. “I think it was right on the money. … There should have been a couple of those.”

“A lot of fun today,” Towles said.” We had a great 14 practices. … We’re fighting hard and competing hard and then this was kind of the culmination of everything, so it felt really, really good.”

Georgia: New Coach Kirby Smart never doubted Georgia’s fans would fill Sanford Stadium for his first spring scrimmage. A crowd of 93,000-plus showed up to cheer the Bulldogs and get an early glimpse of freshman quarterback Jacob Eason.

Hundreds of fans were turned away at the gate for the free scrimmage, and the public address announcer twice asked people to move closer so others could take a seat.

Eason completed 19 of 29 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown.

“I didn’t hide anything from y’all when I said the guy has an elite arm,” Smart said. “He’s got great arm strength, he’s got great arm talent, he makes good decisions most of the time and he’s got to communicate better.”

Alabama: For the third straight year, the Crimson Tide’s quarterback competition will carry over into preseason camp.

Returnees Cooper Bateman, Blake Barnett and David Cornwell and freshman mid-year enrollee Jalen Hurts don’t appear to have much separation in the battle to start. All struggled to get the ball into the end zone in Saturday’s spring-ending A-Day scrimmage for the defending national champions. Of course, it was against what’s typically one of the nation’s top defenses.

The younger quarterbacks, Barnett and Hurts, put up the best numbers to lead the White to a 7-3 win over the Crimson. They also had the advantage in going against the second-team defense, not the starters.

Playing in front of an announced crowd of 76,212, neither group scored until late in the fourth quarter — partly because Adam Griffith missed his first four field goal attempts after Hurts and Barnett moved the second-team offense into scoring position.

Sophomore-to-be Damien Harris (Madison Southern) had 20 carries for 114 yards and two catches for 20 yards.

Tennessee: Quarterback Joshua Dobbs was 5-for-9 for 116 yards in the Volunteer’s spring game. One of his passes was intercepted by Todd Kelly Jr. after being dropped by Jason Croom, who moved from wide receiver to tight end this spring. Dobbs also had a 57-yard completion to tight end Ethan Wolf and a 22-yard connection with Preston Williams that set up John Kelly’s 4-yard touchdown run.

Ohio State: Joe Burrow made his case to be quarterback J.T. Barrett’s backup and future successor.

He was 14-for-23 for 196 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Gray squad to a 28-17 victory over the Scarlet team in front of a record spring game crowd of 100,189 at Ohio Stadium.

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Spring game highlights: Louisville’s Jackson throws 8 TD passes."