BEAUMONT — Kade Harrington can expect to have his number called plenty this coming season, but that wasn’t going to be the case Saturday.
Undergoing an unspecified minor surgery, Lamar’s all-time leading rusher saw little to no action during spring drills and did not play in the Crawfish Bowl, the Cardinals’ spring-ending scrimmage.
That just gave seldom-used running backs from last season a chance to prove they bolster the backfield for maybe the Cards’ most challenging season yet.
Lamar’s 223 yards rushing and one touchdown on 43 carries made up for a bad passing day and helped the offense take a 25-23 win over the defense, earning the white-jersey team a tall trophy of a gold crawfish.
Emmanuel Atoyebi led the offense with 72 yards on three carries, but he had 68 yards on a touchdown run. Atoyebi, who was a true freshman in 2015, had 59 yards on four carries in a season-opening win against Bacone College.
Junior Emmitt Raleigh did most of the work with 22 carries for 54 yards, and freshman Derrion Randle had 39 yards on 12 rushes.
“I thought the two brightest spots of the day were both from Navasota,” Lamar coach Ray Woodard said. “[Randle] couldn’t do anything in the fall because he was coming off knee surgery, but he’s gotten better every day. You can tell the boy’s got some talent, and he’s going to be able to help us. [Freshman defensive back Davon] Jernigan is going to be able to help us as well.”
Jernigan picked off a pass in the red zone from starting quarterback Carson Earp, and Titus Hunt intercepted Blake McKenzie. Jernigan’s interception marked the third straight scrimmage Lamar was picked off in the red zone.
Wideout Zae Giles, a converted defensive back who redshirted this past fall, closed out the Crawfish Bowl with a 14-yard run off a reverse. He led all receivers with four catches for 56 yards.
“I put in a whole bunch of work this spring, and I finally started to put it together in the spring game,” he said.
Woodard was happy with Giles’ rise, adding a young wide receiver corps will need to make an impact following the loss of three seniors including All-Southland Conference performer Reggie Begelton.
“You can tell that’s the spot we lost the most players that really helped us,” Woodard said. “The key to our success is going to be our receiving corps coming on instantly this fall. I think our running game will be intact.”

Roark hired to coach D-line
The offense had to grind against a defense that molded well under first-year coordinator Trey Haverty, who worked most of the spring without a line coach. That was until this week, when former UTSA assistant Eric Roark joined the team.
“Coach Haverty did a great job coaching us up along with the GAs [graduate assistants],” Jernigan said. “We did a good job adjusting as a defense. We had a leadership to help us.”
Roark had been with the Roadrunners from 2009 until this past January, when Frank Wilson replaced Larry Coker as head coach there.
“He’s been here a couple of days with them,” Woodard said. “Obviously, this has been a tough transition with the D-line having three different D-line coaches.”
John Blake replaced Carey Bailey as D-line coach in February, only to take the same position with the Buffalo Bills the next month.

Scrimmage format
The scrimmage was changed from a traditional game of two drafted teams to offense vs. defense because of a number of injuries, most of them at the offense and defensive lines involving Matthew Oubre, John Craven, William Wowkanyn and Larry Carroll. Linebacker Mike Hargis also missed the scrimmage, but neither is expected to miss preseason camp.
“I think we got more quality reps with the units,” Woodard said. “I think the draft is fun, … but we just couldn’t do it.”
The defense made plenty of highlights to keep the game close under the offense vs. defense scoring system. The system calls for 12 points for a defensive touchdown, six points for a turnover, three for a missed field goal, two for a failed two-point conversion, and one for every sack, three-and-out series or tackle for loss. The offense, along with standard scoring plays, could earn a point for any play of 10 or more yards and a point for a drive of three plays or fewer for a first down.
Flagrant penalties would cost the offending side a point each.

QB Race
Overall, it was a tough day for the quarterbacks, who had two passes broken up by converted wide receiver Brendan Langley. The signal-callers combined for 14-of-36 passing and one touchdown, with Earp completing 12 of 27 for 76 yards and a touchdown pass to Raleigh. McKenzie threw 2 of 6 for 21 yards.
Brett Cox, another true freshman from 2015, saw some time at QB as did Miami transfer Clayton Turner, but neither recorded significant stats.