The two-time defending Southwestern Athletic Conference Champion Jackson State football team held its first scrimmage of the fall Saturday morning at the Walter Payton Center.

The Tigers ran approximately 75 plays as first-year head coach T.C. Taylor prepares JSU for the Cricket MEAC-SWAC Challenge Kickoff against South Carolina State August 26 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.

"Execution wise, I thought we were good," Taylor said. "Offensively, we've got to make sure we put some drives together. We had a couple of turnovers, which is a great job by the defense to force turnovers, which we emphasize. We saw some backs that looked really good. J.D. Martin is what we think he is. Irv Mulligan had some good plays as well.  Our red-zone offense was excellent. We scored a number of touchdowns when we got there. Defensively, we have to be better in the red zone, but overall they flew around and competed. Everything was pretty clean for the most part, and it's right where I expected us to be."

Jason Brown, Zy McDonald, and Jacobian Morgan each led scoring drives as they currently lead the competition for the starting quarterback job.

"Overall, the quarterbacks played well, minus the turnovers with one coming on a tipped ball," Taylor said. "We saw some guys make some plays. They each had good command of the offense, and looked good in rotation. It's all about rhythm for those guys, and we are playing them with a lot of different receivers. We're going to continue to coach them and continue to evaluate them over the next few weeks."

A point of focus for Taylor in building his program is physicality, throughout the offseason, in the weight room, and now in training camp.

"We can get more of it," said. Taylor. "That's something we'll continue to push here as a program is tp continue to be physical. The guys in the trenches did some popping, but we'll continue to preach it. We know that's what's going to be the difference in winning football games - playing with physicality."