By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Former T.R. Miller quarterback Patrick Byrne is continuing his push to land the starting job at the University of Memphis for the upcoming season.
Byrne completed 10 of 18 passes for 89 yards and rushed for two touchdowns in Saturday's team scrimmage game.
Byrne's first score was a one-yard plunge that was set up by a 39-yard completion to Maurice Avery. His second touchdown rush came from six yards out and was set up by a 42-yard strike to tight end John Doucette.
The 6-1, 211-pound redshirt junior was Memphis' spring game most valuable player last spring for the second time in his collegiate career.
Byrne, whose primary contribution the last couple of seasons has been kickoffs, figures to get his toughest challenge for the starting spot from Will Hudgens. Hudgens, a 6-3 200-pound freshman from Memphis, saw his chances for the starting job take a slight detour over the weekend when he injured an ankle Saturday and missed Sunday's workout session. Hudgens returned to practice Monday.
Memphis is looking for a successor to preceding starter Danny Wimprine, who set most of the school's season and career passing records before his graduation last spring.
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Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks basketball coach Allen Gainer has made picked up his sixth recruit for the 2005-06 season with the addition of Micah McKinney, a 6-5 forward from Oak Mountain High School in Birmingham.
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anyway so that part should be a smooth transition," Gainer said. "He is a lefthanded player who can shoot some from outside."
McKinney joins Timothy Rodgers, a 6-1 guard from Valdosta (Ga.), Tyler Hammond, a 6-5 guard/forward from Pnce DeLeon (Fla.), Jeremy Cleveland, a 6-5 forward from Raceland (La.), Thomas Tunberg, a 6-6 forward from Fort Walton Beach (Fla.) and Lyndon Butler, a 5-11 guard from Slidell (La.) in the 2005-06 JDCC recruiting class.
The Warhawks lineup has taken a hit with the transfer of sophomore Sam Smith to Chattahoochee Valley College.
Smith, a 6-5 forward from Americus (Ga.), led JDCC in scoring last season at 13.94 points a game and was one of the squad's top free throw shooters at 73.4 percent.
Former Warhawk John Madison, a 5-11 guard from Century (Fla.) has hooked on with Paine College, a National Association Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) member located at Augusta (Ga.). Madison averaged 2.6 points a game last season in a backup guard position.