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Liberty coach Danny Rocco brought in a full crew of referees for Saturday’s practice at Williams Stadium and ran the first real scrimmage of the season. The team will take the rest of today and tomorrow off and get back to it Monday. Tuesday will be the last day of two-a-day practices.

Some items of note:

—Rocco expects to have a depth chart update by the end of next week, as the team transitions from the “training camp” portion of the schedule to the “regular practice” portion of the schedule. The first day of classes is a week from Monday, and that’s generally the demarcation line. Rocco will likely name a No. 1 quarterback at that time, as he doesn’t want to play the quarterback guessing game heading into game-week preparations for the Sept. 5 opener at West Virginia.

—The receiving corps is still littered with injuries. Pat Kelly and Chris Summers participated Saturday after both missed minimal time with muscle pulls earlier in the week. But Ervin Garner and Jimmy Eden were both out Saturday. Eden is expected back Monday; Garner either Monday or Tuesday. If the receiving corps is healthy next week, that will give Mike Brown more of an opportunity to work with the quarterbacks in the final week of the starting quarterback competition.

—A breakdown of the snaps taken by each quarterback Saturday, offered without comment. I just want to give a snapshot of who spent the most time working during the scrimmage:

Mike Brown: 28

Tommy Beecher: 34 (including eight on a two-minute drill at the end of practice).

Tyler Brennan: 28 (including six on a two-minute drill at the end of practice).

Spencer Landis: 4 (all handoffs).

Brian Hudson: 2.

Landis has been dealing with a elbow injury, reducing his effectiveness. Rocco on Landis: “Spencer’s had an elbow for a long time. He’s done a great job of just being there when we need him. He’s on again, off again, on two, off two. There are some days where he’ll never even throw the ball. We’re going to re-evaluate his elbow and make some decisions on how to move forward with him.“

—Scrimmage highlights included:

* On the day’s first play, Beecher and Summers hooked up for a 35-yard gain when Beecher rolled right on a play fake, pumped once and found Summers open down the right sideline.

* On the day’s second play, Beecher rolled to his left, but linebacker Wes Cheek read the play perfectly and batted a pass attempt, and Doncel Bolt dove to intercept the tipped ball.

* A fake handoff play to the right morphed into a reverse handoff to Aaron Hewlett, who sped 25 yards down the left sideline for a huge gain.

* SirChauncey Holloway ran a pretty cutback counter play where he started right, bounced to the left and hit a hole for a 30-yard gain.

* Brown and receiver Freddy Brown hooked up on a nice pass play on a blitz. The play started at the home 29, and Brown caught it at around the 45. With only two guys to beat, he would have scored a touchdown, but the coaches blew the whistle.

* Nice recognition by Daryl Robertson when Mike Brown fumbled trying to hand off to Hewlett on an inside sweep. Robertson grabbed the ball off the turf and would have scored, but again, the coaches blew the whistle.

* Also, Danny Broggin did a nice job of picking up a linebacker blitz on one play, allowing Brown time to throw the football. Brown didn’t complete the pass, but had Broggin whiffed on the blitz pick-up, Brown would have been crushed. Blitz recognition was one of the underrated parts of Rashad Jennings‘ game, and will be a key component for whomever is set up with the quarterback in the backfield.

* Ron Hobby returned a punt about 75 yards for a touchdown, making a move along the right sideline at around the visitor 30 to break free for the score.

* Matt Bevins hit a 28-yard field goal on the first two-minute drill. Ben Shipps knocked in a 40-yard field goal on the second two-minute drill.

Some additional Rocco comments:

“It was a very good tempo in the heat. For the most part, the execution was good. I was real pleased with the progression of our quarterbacks. Both Michael Brown and Tommy Beecher and showing they’re very capable of running this football team. So that’s a good situation. I continue to be impressed with our young running backs. B.J. Hayes, Aldreakis Allen and SirChauncey Holloway are all going to help us this year. Defensively, I thought our defensive line is performing very well. Our defensive line is deep. They’re in condition. Coach Belin is going a good job of getting them to practice hard. Those are some of the things that stood out to me today in a positive way.

“In a negative way, we had way too many penalties. This is the first time we had a set of officials out here. I alerted our kids before practice to three things on offense and three things on defense, and sure enough, that’s what showed up. Too many defensive P.I. (pass interference) penalties; too many offensive holding penalties. We’ve got to get those things cleaned up, or we won’t be able to be very efficient on Sept. 5.“

On the run defense looking sharp, even in a limited-contact scrimmage:

“We are big and physical, and we certainly feel that our run defense should be stout this year. We have enough bodies that we can rotate in and out to stay fresh. We have enough experience that we should be pretty good. For us to be successful as a defense, we have to stop the run. That’s always been our M.O. around here. Hopefully, this will be one of our better run stopping defenses.“

—Check in Sunday’s print News & Advance for a story on how Summers is progressing during camp.

—The Mario Cosby story I plugged for Sunday’s News & Advance print edition will now run Monday, so look for it then.