What were the main takeaways from Saturday's Cheboygan football inter-squad scrimmage?

CHEBOYGAN — It didn’t matter that it was wet, rainy and humid.

People showed up to watch the Cheboygan Chiefs , who hosted a football scrimmage Saturday morning at the Western Avenue Field practice facility.

It was an opportunity for the Chiefs , both varsity and junior varsity, to get some much-needed reps as next week’s home scrimmage with Charlevoix approaches.

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“I thought our kids were excited to play, I thought they were physical, and I thought they were giving great effort,” Cheboygan head coach Bill Nesbitt said. “On the flip side, now they know they need to learn the playbook better. They need to continue to learn the playbook on their own, they need to study with friends, draw plays up and/or pay more attention in practice and get more mental reps when they’re not in there.

“I think everyone here, at least from the program side, had fun today."

Here’s some takeaways from Saturday’s scrimmage.

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Quarterbacks looking solid

Saturday was an opportunity for both Cheboygan quarterbacks — senior Luke Hoskins and sophomore Nolan Schley — to work with the veer offense the Chiefs will run.

Whether it was running or throwing, Nesbitt was pleased by the way his offense looked under either signal-caller. But, of course, there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“We try to get in our whole offense in the first three days, and the next few days we try to repeat as much as we can, so there’s a lot that’s thrown at them over the first five days,” Nesbitt said. “I expect them to not have their playbook all the way down, that’s an expectation. I thought both of our quarterbacks looked good out there. I thought for the most part they made the proper reads. Ball security is No. 1."

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Defense holds its own

Cheboygan’s offense created some big plays, but the defense of the Chiefs showed promising signs by slowing down the running game and making goal-line stands late in the session.

For a defense that’s struggled to limit huge plays in recent seasons, it was a major confidence boost. Mainly, it was about understanding technique and assignments, something Cheboygan defensive coordinator Adam Bury praised.

“We kept it very simple, we weren’t doing any stunts, and we didn’t go into any different front,” Bury said. “We stayed in one front the whole time. I think as the day went on, they were more confident in it, and it was our first live team activity in pads, so overall, I thought it looked good.”

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Three captains named

Before the scrimmage, Cheboygan named Hoskins and fellow seniors Luke Munger and Evan Benson team captains. While only three were named, Nesbitt said plenty of others are showing proper leadership so far.

“Captains doesn’t mean anything except that it puts a letter on your chest, but are you going to be a leader, are you going to be the person not only that kids follow but you will take them in the right direction, and so we’ve got a handful of guys that are leading,” Nesbitt said.

Cheboygan hosts Charlevoix in a noon scrimmage on Thursday.

“What I want to clean up are the mistakes we made today,” Nesbitt said. “We’ll make new mistakes, probably because we’re still getting better and will be tweaking some new things, but that’s the main thing I want to see. The mistakes they made as far as their alignments, as far as the assignments – we want to fix those things.”

Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com . Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @sportsCDT

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: What were the main takeaways from Saturday's Cheboygan football inter-squad scrimmage?