ISU football’s first regular-season game is over four months away, but Redbird fans do not have to wait that long to see the squad in action. The ’Birds’ Red-White Scrimmage on April 28 at Hancock Stadium is the team’s first public event since the 2011 regular-season finale against Northern Iowa on Nov. 15.

“It’s not too much of a big deal for us, and we’re just going to go out and play football as best as we can,” ISU quarterback Matt Brown said.

ISU held its first of two closed scrimmages on Saturday in preparation for the Red-White Scrimmage. Running back Darrelynn Dunn led all rushers with 52 yards on four carries.

Brown went 10-for-21 for 119 yards on the day and wide receiver Tyrone Walker had five receptions for 70 yards. Placekicker Nick Aussieker was successful on 3-of-4 field goal attempts in the scrimmage.

The offense opened the scrimmage on its own two-yard line, but a pair of running backs led the charge downfield. Dunn picked up a 47-yard gain and Cameron Hunt followed that up with a 34-yard run of his own.

After the first two plays from scrimmage, the defense picked it up. Pat Meehan led the linebacking core with six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Defensive back Mike Banks and safety Dontae McCoy each recorded an interception late in the scrimmage.

“The offense came out and played very well early and the defense took control of the scrimmage after that,” ISU head coach Brock Spack said. “Defensively, we’ve been a little bit of a slow-starting team. The offense had two really nice plays to start and then the defense played better as they went through the scrimmage and gained control of the scrimmage.

“There were a lot of good things on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game and we didn’t have any injuries, which is good,” Spack said.

The Redbirds have eight spring practices under their belt with four remaining before the Red-White Scrimmage. Working on the fundamentals and keeping the offense in sync has accounted for a large portion of the time spent in spring practices.

“I think we’re getting better fundamentally and we’ve worked on fundamentals in every position on the field,” Spack said. “The timing of our passing game and some things offensively need improvement.”

Spack is working on strengthening his team’s depth, as he believes it is a factor that separates pretenders from contenders.

“We’re still trying to develop depth within our team,” he said. “Obviously in order to win a championship you have to have a number of players that are capable of playing.”