WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Kevin Sousa isn’t catching passes at Wake Forest anymore.
He’s back to throwing them.
Splitting time between the Gold and Black teams Saturday, Sousa rushed for a touchdown and threw for another in Wake Forest’s end-of-the-spring scrimmage.
He finished with a 5-yard scoring run for Gold and a 6-yard TD pass to Matt James for the Black team in Gold’s choppy 31-12 victory.
Sousa says playing receiver for a while last year was “a building block for me” because “knowing what the receivers go through, I got a perspective of that.”
Orville Reynolds ran for a touchdown and caught another one from Tyler Cameron.
Thomas Brown returned one of his two interceptions 28 yards for a score to help a Gold team that had the starting offense and backup defense.
Black had the first-string defense and reserve offense. Sousa started with Black but both he and Cameron played for both teams.
Sousa was 16 of 32 for 178 yards and threw a pick-6 for each team. Cameron was 9 of 26 for 83 yards and the scoring pass.
The game wrapped up the first set of spring practices under new coach Dave Clawson, who has said he likely won’t settle on a quarterback until roughly two weeks before the Aug. 28 opener at Louisiana-Monroe.
“They made explosive plays and they moved the ball,” Clawson said. “We just don’t move the ball consistently. So we needed big plays. We needed Kevin Sousa to take off and make a play with his feet. … Most of our good offense came in chunks today.
“Probably our offensive numbers are decent, but we did not sustain drives the way a good offense has to.”
Sousa came to Wake Forest three years ago as a quarterback but moved to receiver last year in an effort to get on the field.
With the Gold team, he was 10 of 17 for 127 yards with an interception that Kevin Johnson returned 41 yards for a TD. While with Black, he was 6 of 15 for 51 yards with the touchdown to James and the interception to Brown.
“I’ve just got to come in in the summer and work hard, and come back and show them that I’m more consistent and accurate with my passes, and just run the offense,” Sousa said.
Cameron was 7 of 18 for 65 yards with a TD for the Gold starters and 2 of 8 for 18 yards for Black. Sousa, Cameron and Pat Long combined to throw four interceptions.
Settling on a QB is a chief priority for Clawson, who orchestrated turnarounds at FCS programs Fordham and Richmond and led Bowling Green to three bowl games in five seasons and the Mid-American Conference title last year.
A week after that, Wake Forest hired him to replace Jim Grobe - the 2006 national coach of the year who stepped down following his fifth straight losing season.
Clawson has quite a job ahead of him.
The Demon Deacons lost virtually every offensive player of significance - including four-year starting quarterback Tanner Price, top rusher Josh Harris and do-it-all wideout Michael Campanaro.
About two-thirds of the team’s rushing and receiving yardage from 2013 is gone. The returning players combined for 733 yards receiving and 270 yards rushing last season.
Dominique Gibson, the third-leading rusher last year with 138 yards, is the only returner who gained more than 70 yards for the season and Cameron - who was 7 of 24 last season as Price’s backup - is the only QB who has thrown a pass in a college game.
So, naturally, the scoring in this scrimmage was dictated by the defense: Two interceptions were taken back for touchdowns, and two picks set up two other TDs.
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