Even with Western’s depth at the running back position, it showed it has even more depth for running at the quarterback position during Saturday’s scrimmage.

Three Topper quarterbacks combined for 182 rushing yards on 34 attempts, including an 53-yard rushing touchdown by freshman Marcus Vasquez.

“It’s a nightmare for defenses when your quarterback can make something out of nothing and tucks it and runs,” head coach David Elson said.

Senior quarterback Brandon Smith played with the first unit and had two rushing touchdowns of his own, to go with his 49 rushing yards and 121 passing yards.

“You try to work in the weight room to get stronger and faster and more explosive, and you just carry it out here,” Smith said. “Throughout spring practice, you get better at seeing holes and reading things.”

Elson was pleased with Smith’s performance as he completed nine of his 16 passes.

“He led us to a couple scores, made good decisions and made plays in critical situations,” he said.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Kawaun Jakes threw for 108 yards on 15-22 passing but was not able to get into much of a groove throwing until the second half.

“My teammates picked me up – I was down (after the first half),” Jakes said. “I don’t think I had a completion in the first half, and I came out in the second half and tried to perform.”

The defense had its moments to brag about on Saturday as well, posting six sacks, with sophomore safety Mark Santoro also getting an interception.

“Our defense did a good job getting off the field in red zone situations,” Elson said. “This definitely shows we are starting to get it.”

Western is now in its last week of spring practice and Elson said it has improved but still has unfinished business.

“We took some steps in the right direction with fewer mental mistakes,” Elson said. “The main thing is we want to keep improving on those little things so we can’t lose sight of the fundamentals that we started day one with.”

Senior wide receiver Jake Gaebler said that the team improved a lot of its mistakes since its first scrimmage but still needed to work on some kinks in the offense.

“We were better today, but I still think we made some mistakes, some penalties like jumping offsides,” Gaebler said.

Western will have two more practices this week and will conclude spring practices with its annual Red/White scrimmage at 6 p.m. Saturday at Smith Stadium.