The UND Drive Blog will provide an inside look at the 2011 Fighting Sioux fall camp that begins on Wednesday, Aug. 3. Before UND can begin its first official drive of the season vs. Drake on Sept. 1, the team will spend 29 days on a different kind of a drive as the Sioux will work hard to reach the common goal of being the best-prepared team at the Alerus Center on that Thursday evening against the Bulldogs and each subsequent game that follows.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - In his best coach speak, senior offensive lineman Brandon Quesenberry admitted that the Fighting Sioux offense played pretty well in what turned out to be a scaled-down scrimmage on Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium.  

And, his head coach Chris Mussman agreed. "I thought the offense kind of had the upperhand today," he said. "We held some guys back on the defensive side, but there were not a lot of missed assignments on the o-line and I thought the quarterbacks did a decent job of moving the ball.

"Joey (Bradley) had a good day throwing the ball. He was sharp and our receivers made some plays."

Quesenberry and Mussman also had a similar sentiment in their expectations for the defense to bounce back the next time they hit the field on Monday morning following the team's first day off of fall camp.

In the first portion of the live action, the offenses started at the 50-yard line and ran nearly 25 situational plays. Junior Mitch Sutton (Plover, Wis.) opened the scrimmage with an eight-yard run. 

On Bradley's first play from scrimmage, the sophomore signal caller connected with senior Drew Daggett (Frazee, Minn.) on a 41-yard pass play to invoke some excitement from the offensive sideline. He also connected with sophomore Greg Hardin (Bellevue, Neb.) and redshirt freshman Tyhre Ivery (Garland, Texas) on receptions of 20 and 24 yards, respectively on his next drive.

Senior quarterback Brent Goska (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) also had a nice day throwing the football, connecting on his first five passes. 

Hardin racked up close to 50 yards of receiving on three catches in the plays from the 50-yard line. 

After a 10-minute break to work on onside kicks with the special teams, the live action moved to the red zone where 25 more plays were ran.

Bradley connected with R.J. McGill (Phoenix, Ariz.) on a 20-yard scoring strike for the first touchdown of the day. He also found Blair Townsend (Coon Rapids, Minn.) for a 20-yard scoring connection towards the end of live work.

Redshirt freshman Adam Shaugabay (Warroad, Minn.) had a couple of nice runs in the red zone, including a 14-yard touchdown scamper where he broke several tackles. Shaugabay also took a screen pass from Marcus Hendrickson (Perham, Minn.) and turned it into a 25-yard gain earlier in the scrimmage.

Goska hooked up with sophomore Jake Miller on a 15-yard swing pass for a score.

In all the Sioux scored four touchdowns on 10 series inside the red zone. The defense was credited with a trio of sacks and made several plays behind the line of scrimmage.

News and Notes

• The Sioux will return to the practice field on Monday for a full-pad practice at 9:15 a.m.
• Several defensive players were held out of the scrimmage with various "bumps and bruises" according to Mussman, but he said they will be back in action next week.
• Mussman appluaded the efforts of true freshman Chris Brown (Culver City, Calif.) and Dwayne Brown (Fontana, Calif.). The rookie cornerback duo took most of the snaps at that position during the scrimmage.
• Mussman also liked what he saw from Jer Garman (Marion, Iowa) on Saturday. The freshman running back got a chance to work with some of the older players for the first time and did a nice job, according to the head coach.