FOOTBALL TO HOLD FIRST SPRING SCRIMMAGE ON SATURDAY

4/18/2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State football team will hold its first scrimmage of the Spring on Sat.. April 19. The scrimmage will take place during the team’s practice which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m and is open to the public.

Head coach Marshall Sperbeck is expected to take his team through approximately 50 plays during the scrimmage, which will place the Hornets in different settings (red zone, midfield, etc.).

News & Notes
• After weeks of speculation, Sacramento State officially released its 2008 schedule on Tuesday. The schedule features 12 regular season games for just the second time in school history, including six home contests. To view the entire schedule, select the link on the left side of the page. For season ticket information, call the athletic ticket office at (916) 278-2222.

• The Hornets coaches took a few minutes out of their busy spring schedule to attend the welcome reception for new Sacramento State men’s basketball head coach Brian Katz, Monday night at the Raddison Hotel.

• Sacramento State is one of just three teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision to return two linebackers who earned All-America honors last season by The Sports Network. Seniors Mike Brannon and Cyrus Mulitalo were each named honorable mention All-America last season by the organization. The pair will be joined, once again, by senior Mike Hickman, giving the Hornets one of the best linebacking units in the FCS.

The team is with elite company as the other two schools are two-time defending FCS National Champion Appalachian State and FCS playoff participant Southern Illinois.

• A pair of seniors have opted to switch numbers for the 2008 season. Running back Travon Jones will wear #5 in 2008 after sporting #9 last season. After three years wearing #20, cornerback Kevin Davis will don #2 for his final year.

• The Hornets will likely have one of the biggest tandems of safeties in the Big Sky this season. Both Dorian Brown (6-1, 215) and Matt Evans (6-1, 220) will move back to the secondary after spending last season at linebacker. Brown played safety as a freshman while Evans was a member of the defensive backfield while at Sacramento City College.

• Returner Duncan White and newcomer Mcleod Bethel-Thompson took most of the reps at quarterback during the first week of practice due to a mild injury suffered by last season’s starter Jason Smith. When everyone is back in the lineup, the Hornets will have three sophomore quarterbacks on the roster.

• John Gesek and Greg Knapp were two of the special guests to get a special tour of the soon-to-be-completed Eli and Edythe Broad Fieldhouse on Thursday. The building is expected to be ready for move-in during the first week of May. The tour was featured in a story on KCRA.

• For the first time in recent memory, every coach on the staff has had experience working at Sacramento State. The only change from last season comes on the defensive line where former All-American Jon Osterhout returns after spending two years at Nebraska. Osterhout takes over for Will Plemons who became the linebackers coach at Fresno State (joining former Hornet defensive coordinator Tim Skipper).

• If Osterhout does not have the same jump in his step at practice, he has an excuse. He and his wife Ali (a former Hornet volleyball standout) welcomed their first child, Hudson, into the world in early April.