The spring intrasquad football game for Eastern is held every year to be a fun event for Eastern’s players to go out and have fun scrimmaging one another, but head coach Kim Dameron is expecting the players to be very competitive and try to beat each other, despite the scrimmage title.

The coaching staff has not decided what it will be yet, but the winning team on Saturday will receive a prize, which will add even more incentive to a team that is already highly competitive in practice.

“Even if there is nothing to play for these guys are competitive enough that they want to have bragging rights,” Dameron said. “It is going to be live, so they are going to go. Obviously, I want them to go out and compete and play the game because that’s really the only way you know for sure who can.”

Neither the offense or the defense will be focusing too heavy on schematics on Saturday, but the game will still tell Dameron a lot about the team’s younger players and how they can perform in a game situation.

With four quarterbacks on the roster all trying to prove they deserve the starting nod come next season’s opener against Arkansas, the spring football game will be one of the best looks so far at which player might have the edge in that race.

“It’s another day of live work which obviously the live scrimmages help in our evaluation,” Dameron said. “But other than that, it’s one more practice, it’s one more thing that we are using as an evaluation tool.”

Dameron also said that all four quarterbacks, Scotty Gilkey Jr., Johnathan Brantley, Harry Woodbery and Jaylon Banks, have been running the offense well to this point and that he is pleased with all of them to this point.

In addition to the quarterbacks, Dameron has seen strides from the receiving group and also said the offensive line is beginning to gel together.

The new fast-paced, air-raid, offense the quarterbacks have been running will be on display to the fans for the first time this spring and while there is no expectation at this point for it to be running perfectly, Dameron has been pleased with what he has seen from it so far.

“I think it will show on Saturday that we will go out and execute very well,” Dameron said.

The offense will be up against a defense that is thin in the secondary and also has three starters out on the defensive line. But, young players have stepped up, and the defensive line is one of the areas on the team performing well in spring practices.

“Our secondary has really done a yeoman’s job this spring to stay on the field to allow us to practice because we have been so thin back there,” Dameron said.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]