The start time of Campbellsville University's first fall football scrimmage was also a simulation of the season opener, as the Tigers lined up on the Finley Stadium turf under the lights Thursday at 7 p.m.

While the starters saw only a handful of plays, the focus right now is finding solid back up players, CU head coach Perry Thomas said. The Tigers took the field for an hour and a half Thursday and will scrimmage again Saturday at 8:30 p.m. with the Group B players, as part of Campbellsville's Welcome Weekend festivities.

"The guys competed well tonight. We're not sharp by any stretch of the imagination, which you wouldn't expect us to be right now, but at the same time we've got another one Saturday. We've got to be carefully being a week out of not letting them bang on each other too much but still get in quality reps," Thomas said. "We have some execution issues to work out and a little depth issues in a couple of spots where we've got to find our solid number twos. We have a few more days to work that out."

Thomas said team's speed and aggressiveness stood out during the scrimmage, seeing some hard hits, a few forced fumbles and big kick returns. However, Thomas stressed the need for better tackling on defense and longer blocks and ball security on offense.

For Saturday, he has one hop: "Bang the snot out of each other and get some reps. There's so many of them it's tough on them. They (new guys) can't get the quality reps they need. It's frustrating to a guy to work your butt off and not get any clock, but they'll get some time Saturday."

Campbellsville opens its season Saturday, Aug. 28 against Kentucky Christian University. The game will be televised by WLCU in Campbellsville and streamed live online at CampbellsvilleTigers.com. All Fighting Tiger football games can be listened to live on K-Country 105.7 FM in Central Kentucky and also online at WTCOSports.com.